Security Camera Cloud Storage Cloud Storage for Video Surveillance and CCTV Footage
Surveillant records your existing cameras to the cloud, so the footage lives off-site, encrypted, and out of reach of the thief who walks off with your recorder. There is no NVR or DVR to fail, fill up, or get stolen, and every clip is searchable in plain English from any browser.
Works with any ONVIF or RTSP camera. Keep the cameras you already own.
- Where footage lives
- Encrypted cloud, off-site
- On-site recorder
- None required
- Encryption
- AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit
- Typical retention
- 30, 90, or 365+ days
- Access
- Any browser, any site
Security camera cloud storage records your video to a data center instead of a box in the closet. It matters for one blunt reason: a burglar who takes the recorder takes the only copy of the evidence, and a hard drive that quietly dies takes it too. Cloud storage keeps footage off-site, encrypted, and available from any browser, and it lets you hold 30, 90, or 365 days without buying and replacing drives. The two costs to plan for are the monthly per-camera fee, usually 2 to 8 dollars for basic cloud recording and 3 to 15 dollars more for AI analytics, and the upload bandwidth, roughly 1 to 4 Mbps per camera. Surveillant adds cloud storage to the cameras you already own over ONVIF or RTSP, with no new hardware and no NVR to maintain.
The Recorder in the Closet Is a Single Point of Failure
Most business camera systems still record to a network video recorder or a DVR sitting on-site, often in the same room a break-in starts. When the recorder is stolen, smashed, or simply unplugged, the footage of the crime goes with it. That is not a rare edge case. Experienced burglars look for the box precisely because they know it holds the evidence.
Even without a break-in, local storage fails on its own schedule. Consumer and prosumer hard drives are rated for a finite service life, they run hot in a closet with no cooling, and a drive that dies silently keeps a green light on while it records nothing. Managers discover the gap only when they go looking for a clip that was never saved. Then there is capacity: a fixed drive holds a fixed number of days, so the moment you add cameras or raise resolution, your retention window quietly shrinks.
For any business with more than one location, on-site recording also means the footage is trapped where it was captured. Pulling a clip from another site means someone driving there, logging into a local machine, and exporting to a thumb drive. That is the workflow cloud storage exists to end.
Cloud Storage on the Cameras You Already Own
Surveillant connects to your existing IP cameras over ONVIF or RTSP, streams their video to the cloud, and stores it encrypted off-site. You do not replace a single camera, and you do not keep an NVR alive. The footage is written to redundant storage in a data center, so a stolen or dead box on-site no longer costs you the evidence.
Because the recording layer and the analytics layer are the same system, stored footage is not a dumb archive. Every clip is indexed as it lands, so a manager can type "silver van at the loading dock after 9pm" and get the matching moments back in seconds instead of scrubbing a timeline. Retention is a setting, not a hardware purchase: move from 30 days to a year without touching a drive.
Honest limit: cloud storage costs upload bandwidth, about 1 to 4 Mbps per camera, and a site with dozens of cameras on a slow connection may need a bandwidth upgrade or on-camera edge buffering. If you want the cheapest possible cloud clips for a single home camera, a consumer plan from Ring, Nest, or Wyze will undercut any business platform. Surveillant is built for organizations that need real retention, multi-site access, and search, not a two-dollar hobby plan.
What Cloud Storage Costs, and How Long to Keep Footage
Two numbers drive the bill: how many days you retain, and the resolution and frame rate you record. These are typical US market ranges for business cloud recording, not a Surveillant price list. See pricing for exact plans.
| Retention window | Who it fits | Rough storage per camera* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Small business, low-risk retail | ~150 to 400 GB | Practical floor for most claims |
| 60 to 90 days | Most businesses, multi-site retail | ~300 GB to 1.2 TB | Covers slow-to-surface injury and HR claims |
| 1 year | Cannabis, firearms, some liquor licenses | ~1.8 to 5 TB | Often a licensing or regulatory minimum |
| 7 years | Specific regulated and legal-hold cases | Archive tier | Cold archive, retrieved on demand |
*Storage per camera varies widely with resolution, frame rate, scene motion, and whether recording is continuous or event-based. A 4K camera recording continuously uses several times the storage of a 1080p camera recording only on motion. Figures are order-of-magnitude estimates to size a plan, not a guarantee.
Basic cloud recording
Roughly 2 to 8 dollars per camera per month for continuous or event cloud recording with no analytics. This is the baseline for getting footage off-site.
Cloud storage plus AI
Add roughly 3 to 15 dollars per camera per month for AI video analytics on top of storage: object detection, natural-language search, and alerting on the stored streams.
Bundled proprietary cameras
Platforms that require their own cameras fold storage into a device price of roughly 600 to 3,500 dollars up front per camera, plus a license. Cheaper per month, far more expensive to start.
What Cloud Storage Buys You Beyond a Backup
Off-site is the start. These are the reasons businesses move recording to the cloud.
Evidence a Thief Cannot Take
Footage is written off-site the moment it is captured, so a stolen or destroyed recorder no longer means the crime went unrecorded. The copy that matters is already in the data center.
Retention Is a Setting
Move from 30 days to 90 days to a year without buying, installing, or replacing a single hard drive. Capacity scales with the plan, so adding cameras never quietly shortens how long you keep footage.
Encrypted End to End
Video is encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256, and access is controlled per user and per site. Stored footage is protected the way any regulated business data should be.
Access From Any Browser
Pull live or recorded video from any location on any device without driving to the site or logging into a local machine. One console covers every camera at every site.
Search Stored Footage in Words
Because storage and analytics are one system, every stored clip is indexed as it lands. Describe what you are looking for in plain English and get the matching moments back in seconds.
Clean Evidence Export
Export the exact window around an incident with a chain-of-custody log that an insurer, an attorney, or the police will accept, without dumping the whole day to a thumb drive.
Cloud Storage Against an On-Site NVR or DVR
Local recording still wins on raw bandwidth and one-time cost. Cloud wins on survivability, access, and scale. Here is the honest split.
| Factor | On-site NVR / DVR | Cloud storage |
|---|---|---|
| Survives theft or fire on-site | No, the box is the evidence | Yes, footage is off-site |
| Upload bandwidth needed | Minimal, records locally | 1 to 4 Mbps per camera |
| Up-front cost | Recorder plus drives up front | No recorder, monthly fee |
| Multi-site access | Per-site login or a VPN | One console, all sites |
| Extending retention | Buy and install more drives | Change a setting |
| Ongoing maintenance | Replace failed drives yourself | Managed, redundant storage |
Many businesses run a hybrid: a few days of local buffer on the camera or a small recorder for bandwidth-heavy continuous capture, with cloud storage holding the long retention copy. Our guide to cloud vs on-premise video surveillance walks through when each model makes sense.
Security Camera Cloud Storage Questions
What is security camera cloud storage?
Security camera cloud storage records your video to remote data-center servers instead of a recorder on-site. The footage is encrypted, held off the premises, and reachable from any browser. It removes the on-site recorder as a single point of failure: if the box is stolen, destroyed, or its drive dies, the footage that matters is already saved elsewhere.
How much does cloud storage for security cameras cost?
For business systems, basic cloud recording runs about 2 to 8 dollars per camera per month, and adding AI analytics on top costs roughly 3 to 15 dollars per camera per month. The exact figure depends on retention length, resolution, and whether you record continuously or on motion. Consumer single-camera plans from Ring, Nest, or Wyze are cheaper but are not built for multi-site business use.
How much bandwidth does cloud video storage need?
Plan for roughly 1 to 4 Mbps of upload per camera, depending on resolution, frame rate, and how much motion the scene has. A handful of cameras runs fine on a normal business connection. A site with dozens of cameras on a slow uplink may need a bandwidth upgrade or edge buffering that uploads on a schedule instead of live.
Is cloud storage for CCTV footage secure?
Reputable platforms encrypt video in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256, control access per user, and store footage on redundant infrastructure. In practice cloud storage is usually more secure than an unlocked recorder in a back office, because the footage is off-site, access is logged, and there is no single drive to steal. Confirm the vendor states its encryption and access controls plainly.
How long can I keep footage in the cloud?
As long as your plan allows, commonly 30, 60, 90, 180, or 365 days, with archive tiers reaching several years for regulated cases. Thirty days is the practical floor for most claims, and 60 to 90 days is safer because injury and employment disputes often surface weeks later. Cannabis, firearms, and some liquor licenses require a year or more, so check your regulator.
Do I need a special camera for cloud storage?
No. If your cameras are IP-based and speak ONVIF or RTSP, which nearly all cameras installed in the last decade do, a software platform like Surveillant can stream and store them in the cloud without replacing anything. Older analog cameras need an encoder or a DVR that exposes an RTSP stream first. You do not have to buy proprietary cloud cameras.
What happens to my footage if the internet goes down?
During an outage, upload pauses. Most setups keep a short local buffer on the camera or a small on-site recorder that holds recent video and uploads it once the connection returns, so you do not lose the window. For sites with unreliable connectivity, edge buffering is the standard answer and worth confirming with any provider before you sign.
Related Pages
Size the plan and the platform before you commit.
Cloud Video Surveillance Software
The full cloud-native platform, not just the storage layer.
How Much Storage Do Cameras Need
Size retention by resolution, frame rate, and days.
How Long to Keep Footage
Retention floors, and what regulators require.
Cloud vs On-Premise Surveillance
When local, cloud, or hybrid is the right call.
Multi-Site Video Management
One console for every location and every camera.
Cloud Surveillance Pricing
What cloud video actually costs, line by line.
Move your recording to the cloud tonight
Connect one camera, pick a retention window, and watch the footage land off-site and searchable. 14-day free trial, no new hardware and no NVR to maintain.