Best Practices for Storing Camera Footage in the Cloud
Your camera caught something important. Where does the footage go?
Your camera caught something important. Where does the footage go?
While your security camera keeps watch over your house and loved ones, it’s constantly recording video. That large volume of footage needs to be stored somewhere so you can access it again in the future. Video can be stored locally on a hard drive or SD card, but then you’re limited by the amount of physical space you have available. Run out, and you’ll need to either buy more storage or delete old footage.
Cloud storage helps solve many of these problems. Instead of recording locally, your security camera can push its video footage to a remote server hosted on the internet by another company. Pay a nominal monthly fee, and your footage is automatically backed up and available on any internet-connected device. No more juggling multiple drives, and no more worrying if you’re going to run out of space.
While it can be helpful to record a constant stream of footage around the clock, doing so can easily eat into your allotted storage capacity. Some cloud security footage providers, like Arlo Secure, can help you prioritize the most important details with features like motion-activated recording and customizable activity zones.
Set the active area you want to record and when the camera detects movement within that zone, it’ll automatically start recording. Now you won’t need to sift through hours of footage to find the few moments of activity you need to verify, and you can say goodbye to storage capacity alerts.
Maximizing security camera privacy is critical, especially in the cloud. If a malicious actor gains access to your username and password, they could compromise your entire account.
Mitigate the damage by turning on multi-factor authentication. This is one of the most important security camera cloud storage best practices, because it adds an extra verification step to the login process and reduces the likelihood of unauthorized access. Also, end-to-end encryption ensures that only you are able to view your security footage, so double-check that it’s active for additional peace of mind.
While the cloud offers a significant increase in storage capacity, available space isn’t infinite. Setting your retention period can help you automatically clear out old footage that you no longer need, making space for new recordings every day.
Figure out what you need and choose the retention period that offers the best balance of accessible archives and available storage, whether that’s a few days, a week or two, or more. Arlo Secure offers 60 days of video history, which is plenty of time for most use cases.
Understanding how to store security camera footage is the first step toward picking the best option for your needs.
There are two primary ways to do this: either on local storage or in the cloud. Both options have their pros and cons, so you will need to weigh your personal security requirements against the cost of implementing the appropriate solution.
Relying on local storage gives you the most control over your data but requires a significant up-front cost to purchase the SD cards or hard drives necessary for storing a large volume of rolling video footage. If you run out of space or your storage needs grow, you’ll need to make additional investments to acquire and set up the drives, then migrate the data. And if your physical drives end up damaged or stolen, your data is permanently lost.
Meanwhile, a cloud storage solution requires a small monthly fee, but allows you to essentially “set it and forget it.” Cloud-powered cameras like the Arlo Pro 6 connect to your home network via Wi-Fi, automatically backing up footage with little to no manual intervention. The cloud server handles security and encryption for you, so your data remains private even if you lose your security cameras. Plus, if your storage needs grow, many security plans allow you to upgrade capacity for a small fee, without the need to swap out drives or migrate data.
A hybrid approach that stores your most valuable footage locally while pushing the rest to the cloud is also available, but implementation is usually more complex and costly than relying on either one solution or the other.
Arlo Secure takes the guesswork out of cloud-based security camera privacy and data management.
For $7.99 a month, you’ll gain access to 60 days of video archives, our Early Warning System with customizable Person, Vehicle, and Fire Detection, automated notifications, and much more. Simply sign up, set your preferences and Smart Activity Zones, and Arlo takes care of the rest, automatically recording, storing, and securing your video feeds with no additional input from you. And if you hit any snags, simply visit our Support Center and receive Priority Care from our team of experts.
Get even more out of your Arlo Secure subscription with Arlo Secure Premium with Professional Monitoring. You’ll receive powerful AI-powered Video Search and Event Caption capabilities and 24/7 Professional Monitoring and Emergency Response, available right from the Arlo Secure app.
Want to get the most out of your Arlo indoor and outdoor security cameras? Sign up for Arlo Secure today.
Many cloud storage providers use a variety of security features to protect your video feed and keep intruders out of your account. Arlo Secure adheres to cloud security best practices by implementing a military-grade encryption solution to protect your data in transit and at rest. The app also uses multi-factor authentication to add another layer of security to your account.
It depends on the cloud service provider. Arlo Secure keeps a rolling 60-day history of all recorded video as long as you’re an active subscriber. That way you’ll have easy, instant access to your most critical data while keeping storage available for additional footage.
Don’t panic! Since Arlo stores data in the cloud, thieves won’t be able to gain access to your sensitive data. And if you’re an Arlo Secure subscriber, you may be eligible for our Arlo Theft Replacement program.
