Security monitoring requires high precision with minimal downtime to ensure that all critical events are captured. A cloud-based monitoring and incident management system can help your organisation operate in this manner. Why?
By moving to a cloud-based system, operators can access important information from any device that has an internet connection, improving response times and overall efficiency. In addition, the cloud provides greater scalability and flexibility, allowing you to easily adapt to changes in your business needs. It also lets you deploy a homogenous system across multiple locations without the limits of on-premise solutions. This makes it much easier when upgrading software or expanding operations.
If you are considering making the switch to a cloud-based incident management system, this article will view some of the many benefits you can expect. These benefits come at a lower cost than on-premise solutions – something everyone needs during these challenging economic times.
Why Outdated Incident Management Software is Holding You Back
In 2020, the hourly cost of downtime of enterprise servers was between approximately £255,000 to £339,000 for 25% of organisations, while for 17%, the cost was in excess of £4.23 million per hour.
Downtime is expensive for any organisation but when lives are at stake, alarms and CCTV cannot fail. Incident management software needs to be agile and have unlimited uptime in order to capture all critical events. The uptime provide by cloud infrastructure providers typically exceeds 99.99%, maximising the capacity to protect human life as well as property.
Outdated, slow, bug-ridden software cannot be used to its fullest potential and wastes time. Unpatched bugs may cause the staff using it to make errors – another potential threat to public safety. When resources have to be directed towards managing IT systems and not focusing on business operations, something needs to change.
Thankfully, cloud-based incident management software hosted by a third-party provider allows staff to spend more time on being productive and attentive instead of fixing faults. New features are added frequently and the process is seamless. Compare that to legacy software with periodic updates every few years – or worse, never – and the choice is clear.
How Cloud Technology Enhances Operations
Rapid Response to Critical Events
The cloud provides agility, ensuring critical events are reported without delay. The longer the time to detection, the more disastrous the consequences may be. Thankfully, cloud-based systems ensure that responses are fast, mitigating the risk to human life, property, and public safety.
This is partly due to its greater processing speeds, but also due to the decreased likelihood of crashes and bugs that can plague outdated systems and cause indefinite periods of downtime. Fast detection is also vital when detecting issues such as data breaches where a rapid response minimises the impact.
Distributed Systems and Remote Access
When your employees are working remotely, you want to make sure they have all the tools they need to be productive. Cloud technology provides access to features that aren’t available with on-premise solutions, such as remote and lone worker monitoring. Senior management can also check on operations remotely.
Remote access without the cloud is difficult, so this is the only feasible option in many cases. Direct connections across external networks can be tricky to configure. If the employee is working from different locations at different times, there will likely be additional configuration required. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of employees and you have a significant administrative overhead.
Cloud connections, on the other hand, require little administration.
IoT Capability
It’s not just cameras that can monitor events these days. Anything with an IP address can be part of your monitoring system, giving you the most robust means to detect any incidents, from suspicious activity to carbon monoxide levels to footfall.
To leverage the IoT at scale without the cloud would be difficult. Cloud technology allows monitoring sensors to easily gather unlimited amounts of data which can then undergo rigorous analysis where required.
NB-IoT
The cloud makes it easy to integrate Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) into your operations. NB-IoT is a fast-growing communication standard used within Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANS).
Its benefits include improved indoor coverage, support for a large number of low-throughput devices, and low energy consumption. Thanks to its low cost, long range and long lifespan, it’s suitable for monitoring items such as parking spaces and city dustbins.
Smart Buildings
Naturally, smart buildings collect a broad range of data relating to incidents such as fires, as well as energy consumption, air quality and other factors affecting occupant safety. Processing this data in real-time makes it easier to preserve life and develop greener cities.
Lower Costs
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of using the cloud is that it reduces various IT costs. Software and hardware costs are minimised because businesses only pay for the services (typically on a subscription model) and not the software itself, and they don’t need any on-site servers. Storage requirements can also be updated as needed, ensuring businesses only pay for what they need to use.
Cloud technology also eliminates maintenance costs since the software is managed by the service provider.
Disasterproof
Storing data on secure, off-site servers removes the risk of data loss and prevents it from being tampered with. Due to the network of servers used, there is no single point of failure; if a disaster were to affect one server, your data is still protected. There’s also no limit to how long data can be stored.
Real-Time Reporting
Cloud technology provides real-time data collection and analysis to help you achieve your operational goals. This ensures insights can be gained as soon as possible, facilitating a timely response.
Better Security
A cloud solution makes it easier to meet core security and compliance requirements such as data locality, protection, and confidentiality. Users also benefit from a network that’s architected to protect information, identities, applications, and devices.
Improved Collaboration and Communication
Cloud computing can improve collaboration and communication within your organisation. With everything stored in the cloud, it’s easy for team members to share data and work together on projects, regardless of location.
Easy Integration with Third Party Systems
As well as providing efficiency through the software’s main functionality, cloud-based systems also make it easier to connect with a range of external systems for improved efficiency, whether that’s CCTV systems or systems concerning other aspects of operations, such as CRM, invoicing, ERP systems and other customer processes. This makes automation easier, enhancing overall performance. It also improves communication between parties during critical situations.
Conclusion
To summarise, cloud-based monitoring software ensures businesses benefit from the latest developments in incident management, including the use of IoT to collect and analyse vast volumes of data in real-time.
Given that any device with an IP address has the potential to act as a monitoring device, it is important to make the most of this opportunity, especially when it comes to NB-IoT which allows for more effective indoor monitoring and lower energy consumption.
The detection of critical events requires as much uptime as possible, and that’s what the cloud offers with 99.99% being the minimum served by cloud infrastructure providers.
Remote working is also much easier thanks to the cloud, allowing staff to collaborate efficiently, no matter their location. Data integrity is maintained due to the use of multiple geographically distributed servers and its real-time processing allows for timely insights and solutions to be discovered.
The cloud reduces the need to have on-site IT staff and eliminates the hefty maintenance costs of old systems. Updates are deployed immediately and companies can benefit from new version releases as soon as they are available.
We empower organisations to monitor with greater agility and implement intelligent risk practices. Our solutions feature asset management, lone worker protection, IoT integration, and many other state-of-the-art components that ensure the most robust monitoring practises.
Contact us today to learn more about how our monitoring software can assist your business.
