Today, with the rapid development of computer technology, everyone is familiar with the term cloud computing. The concept of "cloud" in the security monitoring industry is not to follow fashion, but because surveillance videos are typical unstructured data and are quite difficult to process; therefore, in the current environment, if you want to apply these data in depth, you must Cloud computing is required, so it is the development trend of the entire security monitoring industry.

Analysis of the current situation of cloud computing in China

Cloud computing is composed of three aspects: first, network operators, second, service operators, and third, technology providers. In addition to the construction of public cloud servers by telecommunications, security manufacturers build dual-line cloud servers in telecommunications rooms in various provinces and cities. It is not difficult to provide a service platform for your own products, so some security manufacturers are also building one. But at present, there are few that are doing well in China. It must be a big investment. However, there are several domestic security companies that have reliable cloud computing plans, such as Hikvision and H3C.

The current situation in China is that when building public cloud servers (mainly for home security and personal shop security), if operators and several large state-owned enterprises are the main players, telecom companies have advantages, but security companies have little advantage. Large engineering companies have not followed up. If they step out in the industry, they will have no choice but to follow these companies in the future.

Commercial users can use public clouds, but projects in the security industry cannot use public clouds. It can be considered a large private cloud at best. Private clouds can be understood as building and using them for yourself. For example, the Ministry of Railways builds its own private cloud to monitor and connect various lines. Together?—Cloud, private ownership lies in the industry, and of course small and medium-sized engineering companies also have opportunities.

Industrialized private clouds are still necessary. If public clouds are built by operators, then all commercial users will be tied up by operators, and small and medium-sized engineering companies will have nothing to eat in the future. For example, the current high-definition public security system is based on the district and county police departments, and the construction is very messy. If we take the video surveillance of a municipal police department as an example, the application of cloud computing is to integrate the scattered data and virtualize them, so that they are physically isolated and logically connected to establish a unified computing and storage pool. , unified allocation of computing power and storage can save a lot of things, at least the computer room space is saved.

In addition, if security companies want to make better use of cloud computing, they also need unified standards and protocols, because major companies have built their own platforms and are not compatible with each other, which will restrict its development.

Where do cloud computing and video analysis fit in?

The basic feature of cloud computing is to use distributed computing, parallel computing + virtualization to realize on-demand use of video resources like water and electricity. Although the value of combining video surveillance with the cloud is very high, the front end of the surveillance system only has cameras and encoders, and the middle is the network. , if you want to concentrate on the cloud (centralized storage and processing resources), only storage and video analysis can be used, and the management platform can also be cloud-based.

Some netizens believe that video analysis calculations are mostly placed on the front-end. Front-end computing can ensure both image fidelity and processing speed. However, if it is placed in cloud computing, on the one hand, the image will be compressed and the recognition accuracy will be low; on the other hand, There is no guarantee of real-time allocation of network transmission computer CPU resources, and the computing power of front-end chips is already very high, so there is no need to use the cloud for video analysis.

From this point of view, it is actually better to put it in the front-end, but from a practical point of view, it is better to put it in the back-end processing. It is undeniable that because front-end analysis still has great limitations, centralized analysis based on back-end will have more advantages in the future. For future applications, video analysis will not be processed on the front end; this involves the level of data mining; an integrated large platform with intelligence processed on the back end is the way to go. The back end will store and process centrally, and perform centralized backup and video analysis. , intelligent search will be a trend for large projects in the future, especially for safe cities; especially for industry-specific projects.

Personally, I feel that from the current application situation and in the long term, video analysis should still be deployed on the back end. For those with high real-time requirements, it is not suitable to be placed on the back end because there will be network delay. Whether video analysis should be placed on the front end or the back end depends on the specific application. It is best to combine the front and back ends.

Cloud computing enters the security field and has an important impact in the monitoring field

Recently, listed company Hikvision (002415, Stock Bar) officially signed a contract with Alibaba Cloud Computing. The two parties will jointly promote the application of cloud computing and big data technology in areas such as home monitoring, personal safety life, and safe city construction. With the gradual penetration of cloud computing and big data, the development of the security industry has reached a historical turning point, which has brought new opportunities to a large number of enterprises.

First of all, for cloud computing business models, companies can use segmented industries as entry points, such as providing professional security cloud services to specific users in fields such as education, medical care, families, individual businesses, and environmental protection.

Thirdly, in the fields affected by cloud computing and big data, there will be corresponding opportunities, such as improving video intelligence technology, improving video coding technology, participating in standard formulation, participating in the construction of video cloud service platforms, etc.

Under the wave of cloud computing, explore and develop security cloud business models; under the wave of big data, innovate business functions and enrich security cloud services. Enterprises must embrace cloud computing and big data, change their development ideas, innovate business models, use new technologies to develop new businesses, and meet new opportunities and challenges in the new security cloud era.

Cloud computing helps monitoring development

The current intelligent analysis equipment is mainly installed and controlled at front-end monitoring points, but the actual effect is not ideal. With the help of cloud computing technology, idle nodes in the network can be activated at the back end to perform intelligent analysis, thereby obtaining more intelligent work returns with smaller equipment investment.

In the current era of cloud computing, there are many industries that apply cloud computing, and cloud computing basically follows the path of simulation, digitization, networking, and even intelligence for the development of security technology. But in terms of current development alone, it is moving from decentralized, non-networked technology to a networked, integrated, data-centered form.

Cloud storage technology still has advantages in coping with this change. Take Safe City as an example. During the construction process of the current Safe City project, high requirements have been placed on surveillance networking. Therefore, many manufacturers have done enough work on the network processing capabilities of DVR, NVR, or NAS and SAN, and have greatly improved the network capabilities of various devices.

High-definition videos will generate very large storage requirements after being encoded in different ways. This is undoubtedly a very big challenge to traditional storage methods. The emergence of monitoring storage cloud can effectively break the constraints of traditional storage models on storage work. It allows various types of storage devices in the network to be effectively combined to form more powerful storage capabilities than ever before.

The role of cloud computing in home monitoring

For home users, home monitoring information involves too much personal privacy, so the security of the information is very important. What impact do local storage and network storage have on security? Which method is more secure?

Most people may think that putting video information in cloud storage is not safe enough. After all, it is not as "real" as the memory card around you, but have you considered that once a hacker invades your surveillance equipment, the video stored locally will be lost? The information will be displayed in front of the hacker at a glance, and of course there will be no privacy issues.

CCTV has previously exposed loopholes in surveillance equipment, and criminals can easily enter the home surveillance network. Not only individual users, but also some shopping malls and stores have been "blackhanded". Hackers can not only view your information, but also manipulate the surveillance screen. The screen the user sees is not the real screen at home, but may just be an "illusion" created by the hacker for the user.

Cloud storage stores video information in a dedicated server. Whether it is a user or others, access requires certain permissions, and the stored data is encrypted. Even if it is invaded by criminals, he still cannot see you. Video information is of great help in protecting user privacy and security.

Regarding the two storage methods of home monitoring equipment, we cannot simply say which one is better, but judging from the development trend of home monitoring storage, more monitoring equipment will definitely apply cloud storage, big data, cloud storage, and intelligent analysis in the future. Technologies such as these must be the major trend in the development of monitoring equipment in the future.

If the cloud model wants to go further in security, there are still many problems to be solved?

At present, there are cases based on back-end and storage, and it is said that the effect is average. Several companies are discussing cloud computing, mainly doing real-time analysis and post-event quick retrieval. Video analysis is mainly for real-time processing, and intelligent retrieval is mainly for video recording space that can be compressed. At present, one of the main practical applications of the police is retrieval, which can be used to organize things that originally took a day to read within a few hours. However, as the storage pool becomes larger, retrieval becomes a problem. Retrieval will be a key issue in the future.

Is cloud computing a solution provided by IT companies? If a security company spends money to buy it, what are the requirements for the monitoring system software platform?

If surveillance becomes cloud-based in the future, will the cameras in home surveillance or institutions such as banks and prisons be like having to take off their underwear? Can corporate privacy be guaranteed? Security is still very important.

The advantages of applying video surveillance to cloud computing are high resource utilization, centralized management, dynamic expansion, and dynamic migration. The cloud computing model lies in the scale and concentration effect of the back-end. The larger the scale, the higher the cost-effectiveness. So what significance does cloud computing have for small-scale projects?