Cisco Video Surveillance Is Dead, Long Live Cisco Meraki Video Surveillance

we know they'll buy anything with 'Cisco' on the box.

That's interesting, especially when you compare it with Ubiquiti. I know a lot of small IT departments are gobbling up UniFi Protect, largely because they already use UniFi for their network and love it. I think Cisco's problem is that their clientele is high-end, which didn't match their product or strategy. It's easier for Ubiquiti to push cheap CCTV systems to small-to-medium businesses who have one or two IT guys and no security department.

And this time, instead of offering an open architecture (Cisco founded PSIA, the IP video organization that spurred ONVIF into existence), Cisco Meraki is now one of the leaders of the closed cloud lock-in movement.

Meraki Founder: We'll need to write a protocol that nobody can crack; one shrouded in obscurity, full of misleading syntax and implementation vagaries, virtually indecipherable to humans...

Meraki Engineer: PSIA!

So long VSOM! Lmao, your building on Tasman Drive, the one with the 40 cameras on top of it has been dormant for many years.

I bet Verkada is trying to scoop up all the Bay Area School Districts right about now.

(Right About Now, Funk Soul Brotha). Now that song is stuck in my head. :-\

Cisco remains a formidable company in the IT universe. Their level of support and control is unmatched. Funny thing is that, usually when a company is acquired, it takes on the mentality and product line of the acquirer. Cisco has gobbled thousands of companies over the years and they were always thoroughly assimilated. Not much remained of the original products or ecosystem. Not so .. Cisco became Meraki.

Surveillance is however a different , mature industry. There are thousands of companies out there producing fine equipment at all levels of prices. Even worse some components are commodities. Cameras, Switches, Network Infrastructure components have become commodities. I see little value in acquiring a Cisco switch when a Trendnet does the exact same thing at 1/10th the cost... It happens to have a lifetime warranty too... We are at a stage where $90 cameras match the Image Quality of $500 models... and with the new compression schemes ( H264, H265 and their variants), one doesn't need spectacular performance for switches... I have seen 4 MP cameras never exceeding 2 Mb/s on busy areas. 24-port PoE Gig Ethernet Managed Switches are routinely around $300 or under and they last: You install them and forget them ...

Where I believe Cisco may still have some relevancy is in Cyber-security. They remain a leader in that , often overlooked area. The risk of having someone overtaking your security system remains real. I tend to believe in subscription-based cyber-security because the level of expertise, knowledge and dedication is not easily matched by even modest companies IT departments, IOW they simply can't keep up. The name and the level of service of Cisco may be needed by some in this area... Else , no way I would think about Cisco for a Security Project except perhaps for the Network Infrastructure Elements: Main Switches, Main Router, Firewall.

Funny thing is that, usually when a company is acquired, it takes on the mentality and product line of the acquirer. Cisco has gobbled thousands of companies over the years and they were always thoroughly assimilated. Not much remained of the original products or ecosystem. Not so .. Cisco became Meraki.

I totally agree. I could hardly see Cisco following with another company’s name. Cisco completely absorbed the company called TANDBERG, where I used to work, and now it’s basically their Collaboration/WebEx product line, though still designed in Oslo.

But I also believe that if Cisco decides to come to security, they could approach this industry from networking perspective, especially when AI and cloud video surveillance become hot topics. Bandwidth is a big factor in video conferencing, and it is a big factor in the security too.

One of my IT friends sent me a link to this article.
Cisco CDP vulnerability

He was asking if we install any of those cameras. Thought id share here

Does anyone know of a VMS that supports these legacy Cisco cameras?

The customer has "all of the above". Good info - thanks