Clearview Makes Security Video Compliant and Cost-Effective with Wasabi Surveillance Cloud

Clearview is a Michigan-based provider of security and related services. Since 2004, the company has installed and managed video security systems, alarms, cameras, and access control systems for more than 15,000 customers. As a new group of clients required lengthy retention of security video files for legal compliance purposes, Clearview began investigating cloud storage options.

Challenge: Complying with video retention rules without breaking the bank 

In the last few years, Clearview has worked with many clients in the cannabis industry. Regulations typically require that such businesses record security video and retain it for a set period of time. Customers in Illinois, for example, must store surveillance video for 90 days in order to be compliant. “The state police have to have access any time,” explained Jason Yousif, President of Clearview. “This is critical for compliance.” In addition, Illinois requires that the 90 days of video be stored both on and offsite.

In the past, Clearview ran their customer’s Digital Watchdog Spectrum Video Management System (VMS) on local servers or network video recorders (NVRs) . With strict regulations requiring offsite storage for the Cannabis industry, this was not a practical or economical proposition. It is costly to send a technician to install and support local systems for such a high storage volume, especially if they have to deploy the storage in two separate locations. Also, customers were concerned about the high capital expense (CapEx) for this amount of storage hardware. “We needed a way to enable compliance for our customers but help them save money at the same time—without compromising on security or performance,” said Yousif.

Solution: Wasabi Surveillance Cloud 

Clearview selected Wasabi Surveillance Cloud as the solution for its customers who needed offsite video storage. Wasabi Surveillance Cloud integrates Wasabi’s cloud bridge software with its Wasabi hot cloud storage subscription. With Wasabi Surveillance Cloud, users of all major video management systems (VMS’s) can offload video surveillance data from local storage environments to the cloud without changing their existing operations. Wasabi Surveillance Cloud installs quickly and offers the ability to scale on demand. Video data is encrypted and encoded to be immutable, therefore untouchable to ransomware threats or bad actors.

Compliance, ease of use, and affordability 

Deploying Wasabi Surveillance Cloud made Clearview’s customers compliant with regulations regarding video retention. If law enforcement or regulatory bodies wants to view surveillance video, it is available instantaneously and seamlessly from Wasabi Surveillance Cloud. Having a redundant copy of video data in the cloud added to customers’ peace of mind.

With Wasabi Surveillance Cloud, Clearview didn’t have to worry about adding to their CapEx or additional on-site technician support. The customer’s total cost of ownership (TCO)  lowered based on less management, power, and cooling requirements. Clearview Digital’s customers also experience strong storage performance with Wasabi Surveillance Cloud.  Customers avoided the inevitable problems that arise as hard drives age. Per Yousif, “People generally don’t like maintaining their hard drives because, after a few years, hard drive issues are likely to occur. Wasabi Surveillance Cloud enables us to skip that aggravation.”  

 Ease of use was also a big plus, as far as Yousif was concerned. A technician could install the NVR, but connecting the NVR to Wasabi Surveillance Cloud could be performed remotely. Yousif shared, “Wasabi Surveillance Cloud implementation is as simple as taking the NVR on-site, remote accessing the server, and then it takes about 10 minutes to get the solution set up.” He added, “It’s easy to set-up an account on Wasabi; once you log-in on the server, you can point  the drive to the appropriate server. You choose the NVR you’re using, which spectrum is on there, and then you can point to where the storage is for that NVR right on the browser. The Wasabi Surveillance Cloud solution does everything on its own after that. We haven’t had to do any maintenance.”     

What’s next for Clearview 

Clearview is planning to start offering Wasabi Surveillance Cloud to its video security customers in Michigan, even though they don’t have a specific compliance need for a storage cloud. The same convenience, ease of use, and low costs make Wasabi Surveillance Cloud an attractive service for Clearview’s customers.