Has Anyone Ever Written An SLA For Your Security Or CCTV System?

We are in the planning stage of modernizing our security system, and that is going to require an entirely new network structure once we get all of our analog cameras converted to IP (well north of 1000 cameras). Obviously this is going to create some bandwidth challenges that did not previously exist.

Our security division is not part of the IT division, so I was thinking it might be prudent to develop an SLA between security and IT to make sure that we will not have any issues with cameras on the network down the road. All of our security stuff is on a separate VPN inside of the larger general IT network, and to this point we have managed it all on our own. That seems like it might be a bad idea moving forward. Beside the SLA I am also curious what experience you guys have that I might be able to learn from so we don't do something stupid.

Scott, good question.

I was thinking it might be prudent to develop an SLA between security and IT to make sure that we will not have any issues with cameras on the network down the road.

Background for others on SLAs:

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a service provider and a client. Particular aspects of the service – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed between the service provider and the service user.

I don't hear about SLAs for video surveillance systems. While I am sure some exist, I think it's uncommon.

Part of the challenge / question to me would be: What happens if the SLA is violated? Does IT pay a penalty or fee to security? Or does security need to pay or contribute more to IT to get a stronger SLA?

More broadly, I do think there is value in setting out who is responsible for what, and what procedures will be used to respond to issues, etc. One of the most common issues is finger pointing between the two organizations (e.g., see Converged vs. Dedicated Networks For Surveillance Tutorial) so that may help.

Good topic!