The cloud has had a huge impact on how many organizations do business. However, many security and alarm monitoring companies have been slow to adopt it. This may be because many do not fully understand the potential of the cloud. Plus, with the inherent security concerns that come with any operational changes, industry leaders have been unmotivated to make the switch.
Despite this slowness, there is a lot of potential value to be gained by using cloud-based alarm monitoring. Understanding the benefits will help you decide if making such a change is right for your business.
The Cloud in the Alarm and Security Field
Chances are that you have heard about the cloud hundreds of times. Unfortunately, it is often thrown around as a buzzword without any clear definition of what it is or how it applies to specific industries.
In short, cloud computing is the delivery of data, applications, processing, and other computing services over the internet and on-demand. One of the most common uses of the cloud is to store and manage data. However, it can be used for so much more in the security industry.
By delivering cloud-based alarm monitoring solutions, service providers can help businesses like yours to run more efficiently and effectively. In this arrangement, the alarm monitoring infrastructure and software is hosted and managed by the service provider. Your team only needs to have workstations from which to connect. Using those, they can perform all necessary monitoring functions with better support, updates, and other benefits.
Advantages of Using the Cloud at Your Business
Cloud computing has a lot to offer the alarm monitoring and security industry. Your business can use the cloud for a lot more than just document storage. The following are some of the most significant benefits of using a cloud-based platform for alarm monitoring:
- Eliminate Need for On-Premises Hardware: Using cloud-based alarm monitoring, there is a significantly reduced need for on-premises hardware. You can move your infrastructure in part or in entirety to a secure, protected location. Going forward, you only need phones and workstations on-premises. No servers, receivers, or alarm software implementations are needed.
- Improve Security and Reliability: Cloud services are usually hosted in data centers. These typically offer more security and reliability than is possible with on-premises hardware. In other words, you don’t have to worry as much about cyber threats or outages.
- Reduce Customer Frustrations: The consistency of cloud alarm monitoring means that your customers won’t be frustrated by outages. Increased customer satisfaction can lead to improved revenue.
- Cut Monitoring Costs: In many cases, your security business can access best-in-class technology that would otherwise be significantly more expensive. This means that you can reduce costs and offer more features to your customers.
- Familiar User Experience: If you switch from an on-premises monitoring solution to a cloud version of the same software, your operators likely won’t know the difference. The user experience can be almost identical, meaning there are no retraining costs for switching.
- Simplified Maintenance: Switching to cloud-based alarm monitoring also means that you are outsourcing the hardware and software maintenance to the service provider. Furthermore, in many cases, you can get expert help with the implementation and configuration of software for your team. In other words, maintenance is simpler and faster.
- Flexible and Scalable Growth: Typically, cloud services can be scaled significantly with minimal cost. You don’t need to invest in new infrastructure or other resources. Simply increase the scope of your license and keep growing your business.
Examples of Cloud Alarm Monitoring in Action
Implementing an effective cloud-based alarm monitoring solution can deliver impressive results for your business. At one monitoring center, implementing cloud-based alarm monitoring at their start-up helped them to expand their services while keeping hardware and IT costs down.
On-site hardware needs to be configured and maintained by the security center. By offloading the management of core infrastructure to a cloud service provider, the monitoring center was able to substantially reduce its downtime. The improvement was so significant that one executive remarked that the only time a system went offline, it was immediately replaced by a redundant backup, thereby making the downtime effectively zero.
Another central monitoring station had similar results when working with cloud-based monitoring. Furthermore, the company had unique transition requirements with a phased process being identified as optimal. Thanks to the flexibility of cloud-based infrastructure, the core data could be switched over while continuing to use other legacy components. This simplified the transition and ensured that the change was completely seamless while bringing the core elements online with an expedited timeline.
Harness the Power of the Cloud with Manitou Cloud Services
You could realize the above benefits for your business by using Manitou Cloud Services from Bold Group. This powerful alarm monitoring software offers all the benefits of Bold Group’s industry-leading on-premises solution but delivered through the cloud. Discover more about the benefits and use cases today then contact us to learn more.