14 October 2020
Delivering cloud video surveillance
Founded in 2012, Eagle Eye Networks is a global leader in cloud video surveillance, addressing the security needs of businesses, alarm companies, security integrators, cities, and individuals. Eagle Eye Networks’s 100% cloud managed solutions provide cloud and on-premise recording, bank level security and encryption, and broad analogue and digital camera support – all accessed via the web or mobile applications.
As a cloud services company, Eagle Eye Networks is dedicated to delivering service to its customers and its goal is to ensure the end-to-end solution meets its customers’ needs.
As Tijmen Vos, technical director, EMEA at Eagle Eye Networks, explains: “Turning a whole industry to using cloud comes with its own set of challenges such as issues around bandwidth, cheap (non-cloud) alternatives and the need to have your video available 24/7/365 on any device in real-time. Whenever you run a global cloud solution and follow a ‘rack and stack’ data centre strategy for your cloud, it is essential that you have 24/7/365 access to equipment deployed in a professional and secure way.”
To ensure this continuous access and the ability to keep its video surveillance systems up and running at all times, Eagle Eye Networks went to market to seek out a suitable network management solution. The CM7100 Console Server from computer network technology company, Opengear stood out from the competition because it delivered exactly what Eagle Eye Networks was looking for around reliability, uptime and security.
According to Vos: “We wanted to have an alternative means to access our data centre network remotely and securely, so that in the event of a network outage, we could rectify and remediate it quickly and efficiently, without having to get an engineer out on site. We were recommended to look at Opengear. It is among the leading providers of network management consoles operating across the market today.
“Out-of-Band management offered us a reliable way of ensuring uptime and system availability, and we saw that opting for the Opengear management consoles would enable us to achieve the network resilience we needed,” Vos added. “At Eagle Eye Networks, we’re continuously striving to have the best cloud video surveillance solution and we see deploying the Opengear hardware as a key part of that process.”
Engagement process and solutions roll-out
Impressed by the features and functions of the Opengear CM7100 solution, Eagle Eye Networks initially ordered a single unit for testing purposes, and deployed it in one of its main data centres. It ran trials for three months before making a final decision to choose the Opengear solution.
With the decision taken, Eagle Eye Networks began the process of rolling it out across its data centres globally as part of its standard solution. It has already completed the process in Europe, with the US and the Asia-Pacific region set to follow in due course. Moving forwards, every new Eagle Eye Networks’ data centre that comes on stream will be deployed with the Opengear solution in place.
Putting the solution to good use
Today, Eagle Eye Networks is actively using the Opengear management consoles to create triple redundant Out-of-Band management access across its global cloud solution, covering maintenance, support and configuration management.
With the solution now deployed across multiple data centres, Eagle Eye Networks is achieving a range of benefits. These encompass everything from global Out-of-Band management access, to qualifying for high-quality, easy to manage global support. With the Opengear solution in place, Eagle Eye Networks can ensure its video surveillance cloud achieves high levels of uptime, and can thereby become less dependent on the uptime of individual carrier companies.
Looking ahead positively
Eagle Eye Networks has been reaping the rewards of the Opengear solution ever since it was rolled
out and deployed. Vos said: “we benefit from having a robust, secure, yet flexible, remote access out-of-band management solution in place and still more importantly, we can pass these benefits onto our customers through the higher uptime and stronger reliability of service we can provide them through our global cloud.”
Looking further ahead, Eagle Eye Networks is evaluating the potential of Opengear’s application programming interfaces (APIs) within the system’s Lighthouse software to extend and integrate Opengear and out-of-band management features into its own applications and systems. Moreover, as it continues to roll out new data centres it will at the same time continue to ensure that it embeds Opengear’s Smart out-of-band management solution at their very heart.
