Verkada is an emerging leader in the enterprise video security space, and they have been quietly revolutionizing a surprisingly outdated industry. While the features of their cameras and security systems may be new-ish to an enterprise market (low bandwidth usage, remote access to every camera, multi-level permissions, simple installation), the real innovation is how they are approaching the unique challenges presented by the internet of things (IoT).
“Now that the internet age came in, people want to view things remotely,” said Idan Koren, Director of Operations at Verkada. “These closed-circuit systems were never meant to be viewed remotely – people are using workarounds (opening ports, etc.) and a lot of hacks can be done through the cameras, through the NVRs,” he continued.
The problem isn’t just a security issue either: it’s one thing to support a handful of cameras live streaming content (like your Nest video doorbell) and another thing entirely to try to support a network of tens, hundreds, or thousands of cameras without bringing your internet to a crawl.
The IoT has essentially been the wild wild west of product development; hardware and software are most often managed by different vendors (ex: NVR/DVRs, servers, cameras). This siloed model means that updates for each component in the solution happen at different frequencies. An update to one portion of a surveillance system can make integral components incompatible, and render the entire system obsolete.
So how can innovations from the consumer market be rolled out in an enterprise environment? By architecting not just the product, but how the product interacts with the enterprise’s infrastructure and the end-users. Essentially, by architecting the entire ecosystem, the innovation will operate within.
“Verkada is redefining standards in the physical security industry,” said Konstantine Buhler, Principal at Meritech Capital. “By combining several complex systems into an intuitive, software-driven platform, Verkada is positioned to become a leader in Enterprise IoT.”
From day one, Verkada has implemented clear and concise decisions to strengthen security and reduce risks for their customers, all while giving them the exact innovations they’ve come to expect from their at-home products.
Verkada’s hybrid-cloud plug-and-play solution services both the hardware and software aspects of the unit while integrating easily with an organization’s existing telecommunications infrastructure. This ecosystem, architected by a single company, closes the gaps traditionally found in legacy systems (i.e. NVR/DVR/IP solutions). This end-to-end control allows Verkada to automatically update all hardware and software at regular intervals, and deploy software innovations to all their units as they’re developed a meaning that their products not only start out secure but stay that way.
“With all the innovation happening on the consumer side with cameras, people are used to a higher tier of experience,” Kaliszan told Forbes. “This is how you bridge the gap.”
