Axis VMS partners rejoice lament.
In an interview with SED, Axis CEO affirms:
"You’ll also see us put more effort into our own VMS. We are strong in the enterprise market and we see a need to further target the low camera-count market but there is also the mid-sized market to consider. Some of these mid-sized solutions have requirements similar to the small camera-count market but some are more enterprise-like. So you will also see us selling and promoting more of our own software towards the mid-sized market."
As growth slows and IP cameras become commoditized, this is a common counter move. However, with Axis, this is more controversial, given their long-standing partnerships with third party open VMSes. On the other hand, Axis has slowly been expanding their VMS capabilities over the years.
The mid-market though could cause a lot of contention as heretofore Axis has purposely handicapped their products to not appeal nor be marketed there. This will cause more issues with big VMSes like Exacq and Milestone, though in fairness those two are now owned by camera companies themselves...