How Physical Security in the Cloud Will Transform Public Safety

Video surveillance has entered a new era. What used to be centered around passive monitoring is now all about proactive response. From AI-powered cameras that recognize faces or detect anomalies, to license plate readers and audio sensors, today’s systems see more, process more, and run continuously. They also generate massive volumes of video data, which is starting to expose the limits of traditional storage systems.

As more sectors turn to cloud-connected surveillance systems to improve public safety, emergency response, and investigations, it’s becoming clear that installing smart cameras is no longer enough. When decisions and even lives depend on what’s captured on video, you need a cloud storage strategy that’s as flexible, scalable, and responsive as the AI tools you rely on.

The new age of physical security

Modern video surveillance looks very different from a row of analog cameras feeding a recorder in a back room. In many environments, cameras now act as intelligent endpoints that can analyze what they see in real time instead of simply passing every frame downstream.

Depending on the deployment, that might mean matching faces against a list of persons of interest, flagging unusual motion in a restricted area, reading license plates at an entrance, or highlighting potential threats in a crowded space. The goal is the same: help public safety and security teams notice the right things sooner and focus their attention where it has the greatest impact.

This doesn’t remove the need for recorded video. In reality, it increases it. Even when a camera can identify a suspect on the spot, investigations often require going back through days or weeks of footage. That footage may need to be cross-referenced with feeds from multiple sites, shared with law enforcement, or retained for compliance.

Consider a robbery suspect flagged by a street camera using facial recognition. AI may recognize an individual in real time and track them across multiple city blocks using integrated street cams. Investigators can review footage from nearby intersections, transportation hubs, or retail stores to track movement before and after the incident. In many public safety cases, that also means coordinating with multiple agencies and private partners on a tight timeline. Without centralized, cloud-connected systems, that work becomes a fragmented, time-consuming process.

Cloud storage plays a crucial role here. It allows agencies to store high-resolution footage centrally, access it instantly across teams, and retain it for the duration required by regulatory mandates. Even as analytics get smarter and faster, long-term storage remains the foundation of any modern surveillance strategy. Without it, there’s no reliable chain of evidence, no ability to collaborate across departments, and no way to fully leverage the power of today’s AI-enabled systems.

Why flexible cloud storage is the missing link

All of this adds up to one predictable outcome: the amount of video that needs to be stored keeps growing. Higher resolutions, more cameras, longer retention windows, and analytics that encourage “always on” recording all push storage requirements in the same direction. In 2024, 90% of organizations surveyed expected their surveillance data volume to increase, yet many are still early in their cloud journey. Nearly half of end users reported that their physical security systems remain entirely on-premises, according to the Genetec State of Physical Security.

You don’t need a citywide deployment to feel that pressure. A single standard security camera capturing video in 1080p at 10 frames per second can generate more than 750 GB of footage in a month. Multiply that across dozens or hundreds of cameras, and it’s easy to see how quickly traditional infrastructure can be pushed to its limits.

Video volume is also rarely steady. Security and IT teams see unpredictable spikes in activity during large events, emergency responses, or even just expanding camera coverage. Traditional on-premises storage isn’t built to flex with that kind of variation. Scaling on-premises usually means buying more hardware upfront, without knowing when you’ll need it (or if it will be enough).

The cloud, by contrast, scales on demand. You can expand your storage capacity instantly to handle surges in footage, without the need to forecast, purchase, and provision physical gear. That’s a huge advantage for security teams or IT administrators who need to be ready for anything.

But not all cloud options are created equal. Many hyperscale providers charge extra for retrieving footage, running searches, or even just moving your own data. These costs add up fast, and they’re not always obvious until it’s too late. According to the 2025 Cloud Storage Index, 49% of cloud storage costs come from fees, not actual storage. That’s led to 62% of organizations exceeding their budgets, and 56% reporting delays to business or IT projects because of those surprise charges. In a public safety context, where budgets and outcomes are highly visible, that kind of unpredictability is hard to absorb.

This is especially problematic in video surveillance environments, where footage isn’t just archived and forgotten. It’s retrieved often for compliance audits, legal holds, training, and investigations. In fact, 85% of organizations access their stored data at least monthly, and 12% do so daily. Video surveillance storage isn’t cold storage. It needs to be fast, flexible, and ready when public safety work calls for it.

Compliance adds another layer of complexity

If you’re responsible for public safety or security, storage isn’t just a capacity problem. It’s also a compliance problem. Video footage that captures people, facilities, or incidents is often subject to strict rules around retention, encryption, and access control. For example:

• Law enforcement agencies must comply with CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) standards for everything from data encryption to audit logging.

• Hospitals and healthcare systems must meet HIPAA security and privacy requirements.

• Higher education institutions are subject to FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and the Clery Act, which require proper retention and handling of video footage tied to student safety.

These regulations aren’t optional. Violations can result in legal action, funding losses, or reputational damage, and they can erode public trust in the agencies responsible for keeping communities safe. But meeting these demands is difficult with storage systems that limit access, charge unpredictable fees, or require constant maintenance.

Rethinking the role of storage in public safety

When surveillance systems are working well, storage is easy to overlook. Footage is captured, archived, and rarely thought about until something goes wrong or capacity runs out. It becomes part of the background, even though every camera and analytics tool ultimately depends on it, and even when that footage may be central to how incidents are reviewed, reported, and resolved.

The impact only becomes visible when storage can’t keep up. Retrieval slows down during an active investigation. Gaps appear in the record because older footage had to be overwritten. Teams struggle to pull related video from different locations or systems in a consistent way. At that point, storage is no longer a quiet infrastructure choice; it’s a constraint on how effective the entire security program can be.

That’s where simply adding more capacity is not enough. The shift to cloud storage has to be about operational resilience: ensuring that teams can access footage quickly during a crisis, adjust retention as mandates change, and scale to support major events, new facilities, or citywide camera rollouts without redesigning the entire system underneath.

These are real-world challenges facing public safety leaders today, and they demand a storage strategy that’s purpose-built for video surveillance, not adapted from other workloads.

Cloud storage that meets the moment

Across public safety, video now supports real-time awareness, long-term investigations, and collaboration among multiple teams and agencies. Storage is the layer that has to keep all of that connected. That calls for a cloud platform that’s tailored to video workloads and aligned to how video surveillance actually operates.

Wasabi Surveillance Cloud makes it easy to scale storage as your surveillance needs grow, without compromising on speed, compliance, or cost predictability. You get:

• Predictable pricing with no egress fees

• Fast access to archived footage, even months or years later

• Seamless integration with the video management systems (VMS) and tools you already use

• Built-in compliance features like encryption, immutability, and object lock

For organizations moving away from legacy storage, our Cloud Adoption Roadmap provides a clear path to modernize video workloads without disrupting day-to-day work. Instead of worrying about where video will live or what it’ll cost to access, you can focus on using it to prevent incidents, speed investigations, and strengthen trust with the communities you serve.