By Joanna Santander, VP of Sales & Business Development, Videoloft
TL;DR:
Many businesses are shifting to cloud video surveillance in 2026 to gain centralized access, meet insurance and compliance requirements, extend footage retention, secure remote sites, or replace aging hardware, often starting small and scaling up with platforms like Videoloft.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably considering a shift to cloud video surveillance – or at least curious why so many other organizations still are in 2026. Over the past year, the momentum has only accelerated. As cloud infrastructure matures and AI analytics become standard, we’re seeing more industries and use cases embracing the cloud for reliability, flexibility and scale.
At Videoloft, I talk to hundreds of businesses every month about this exact topic, and the customer patterns remain consistent – but with new priorities emerging around compliance, sustainability and cost efficiency.
Bloew, I’ll walk you through the five main customer profiles leading the charge towards cloud video surveillance in 2026. Whether you’re a multi-site enterprise, a construction firm, or a compliance-driven business, you’ll likely see yourself reflected here.
1. Multi site businesses that need centralized visibility and control
If you’re managing multiple locations (think retail chains, fast food franchises, car dealerships etc) you’re probably already feeling the pain of traditional on premise surveillance.
Every site has its own DVR or NVR setup. If one breaks, you only find out when you need the footage (and it’s not there). Reviewing footage means someone onsite has to do it, or IT has to remote into one of the many different systems used across all of your locations. Scaling up? It means buying another box, provisioning another VPN, and hoping your local installer gets the setup right.
This is exactly where Videoloft stands out. In fact, in our latest research we found that 71% of cameras recording to Videoloft are part of multi-site deployments, and for good reason: centralization, reliability, and simplicity.
One standout example is Western Beef, a prominent supermarket chain operating 21 stores across the New York City metro area. They faced the exact challenges I’ve just described – disjointed camera systems and difficulty accessing feeds across sites.
After a successful proof of concept, Western Beef rolled out Videoloft’s cloud-based Video Management System across 850 cameras in 21 locations. The results?
- Their ops and loss prevention teams now enjoy seamless centralized access to live feeds and stored recordings from any site.
- Their IT, facilities and security teams can monitor and manage their entire surveillance network from one place.
- And our flexible long-term cloud storage options made it easy to meet their year-long retention policy, enforced by their legal team.
Western Beef no longer waste time on fragmented systems. They’re free to focus on operations, confident that every camera is recording, storing, and accessible when needed.
2. Organizations with insurance policies requiring offsite backup
This type of customer is motivated less by operational headaches and more by risk mitigation. I’ve seen a significant uptick in insurance driven mandates requiring offsite video backup, especially in sectors like:
- Jewelry and luxury goods retail
- Cannabis dispensaries
- Hospitality
- Waste management
Take, for example, a UK based recycling firm that works with some of the country’s largest supermarket chains. Their business involves sorting and preparing plastic and cardboard waste for international processing, where it’s transformed into reusable bags in Germany.
The company runs a large-scale sorting facility monitored by 64 Hikvision cameras, but their original setup involved multiple on site NVRs installed by different vendors. The result? Fragmented footage, inconsistent quality, and complicated data management. Worse still, it didn’t meet their insurance company’s requirements for offsite backup to protect against fire risk.
To solve the problem, they turned to Videoloft.
We integrated directly with their existing cameras and provided continuous off site cloud backup of all footage with a 90 day retention period, meeting their insurer’s requirements without needing to replace hardware. The outcome?
- Insurance compliance.
- Streamlined operations, with centralized cloud access to all footage.
- Faster, easier evidence retrieval when incidents occur.
This story is far from unique. Many of our customers use Videoloft not only to secure their business but also to satisfy insurance requirements.
Whether you’re required to store footage offsite for 7 days, 90 days, a full year or more, Videoloft gives you the flexibility and control to meet those standards without added complexity.
Further reading: What insurers want: How cloud video systems can lower premiums and risk
3. Firms needing long term retention for liability and claims
Another big motivator? Liability protection. Certain businesses are choosing cloud video surveillance because they need to retain footage for months or even years, far beyond the 30 day window typical of DVRs and NVRs.
This is especially common in:
- Healthcare clinics and care homes
- Education institutions
- Firearms retailers
- Indoor leisure venues
Take Guns of Distinction, a licensed firearms dealer in California. In response to updated state legislation, they were required to retain continuous video footage for at least one year. Their existing Dahua NVR simply couldn’t handle the volume or duration affordably.
After exploring traditional hardware based solutions, which would have cost over $10,000 in upfront investment, they found Videoloft. With a single Cloud Adapter, they transitioned their entire surveillance setup to the cloud, meeting all compliance requirements while gaining added benefits like remote access and motion detection alerts.
As their owner Storm Jenkins put it:
“They solved my problem and saved me a fortune.”
Similarly, Big Air, an indoor adventure park in Buena Park, California, needed long-term, reliable storage to defend against incident claims. With 42 Hikvision cameras already in place, they wanted a solution that would protect their footage, reduce local hardware dependency, and ensure footage was accessible on demand.
Videoloft delivered exactly that, centralized access, scalable cloud storage, and a future proof foundation for their surveillance operations.
These organizations now enjoy the peace of mind that comes with secure, long term cloud CCTV retention – and the ability to retrieve critical footage instantly when needed most.
Further reading: Need long-term video retention? Here’s how a cloud VMS makes it simple
4. Security teams protecting remote or temporary locations
We’re also seeing a growing category of customers using cloud video surveillance to protect non-permanent or hard to reach sites. These include:
- Construction sites.
- Utility infrastructure (e.g. substations, cell towers).
- Renewable energy assets (solar farms, wind turbines).
These environments often lack the connectivity, power, or infrastructure to support traditional surveillance. But thanks to 4G/5G routers and cloud video platforms like Videoloft, it’s now feasible to stream footage directly from camera to cloud, with no recorder onsite.
And because these setups can be deployed in minutes, they’re ideal for mobile surveillance units. That’s why Videoloft is the go to choice for remote surveillance deployments.
A great example is Newvision Security Solutions, a UK based company that specializes in portable, solar powered CCTV towers. Their systems are used to monitor everything from new housing developments by Bellway Homes and Lovell, to Heathrow Airport’s car parks – plagued by illegal dumping and vandalism.
Their unique challenge? These deployments are temporary and off grid, requiring compact, self-sufficient surveillance setups.
To solve this, Newvision pairs solar panels with 4G connectivity – and eliminates onsite video recorders entirely by using Videoloft’s Cloud Adapter. Footage is stored directly in the cloud, while a local buffer ensures no data is lost if connectivity temporarily drops.
If you need video surveillance where the grid doesn’t go, Videoloft helps you go fully cloud without compromise.
5. Customers with aging or failing on premise hardware
A significant number of businesses are still running video security systems that are outdated. DVRs that haven’t been maintained in years, recorders no longer supported by the manufacturer, or hard drives nearing failure, all common stories I hear from our customers.
For these organizations, the move to cloud video surveillance is often prompted not by strategy, but by necessity. Yet the transition doesn’t have to be disruptive or expensive. I’ve found that many businesses choose to add cloud to their existing cameras using our Cloud Adapter, allowing them to modernize without a complete system overhaul.
What’s often underestimated is that this shift can do more than just stabilize a fragile system, it can enhance what video surveillance is capable of.
Built in smart analytics
Every Videoloft plan includes basic AI powered video analytics that can detect people, vehicles, and animals. This adds an extra layer of usefulness for businesses where quick access to key footage matters, like in retail, convenience, or fuel stations.
Custom alerts via push notification or email can also help flag incidents in real time, particularly after hours or in sensitive areas.
Add on capabilities for specific use cases
Some organizations I’ve worked with also opt for additional functionality when their operations call for it, and the best part is, with Videoloft, these features work even with standard, off-the-shelf cameras.:
- License Plate Recognition (LPR):
Used by fuel stations to quickly retrieve video linked to drive offs, or by car dealerships to log visitor data and improve service records.
- People Counting:
Deployed by retailers and hospitality businesses to monitor footfall trends, compare locations, and better understand customer flow for staffing or operational planning.
These analytics features aren’t just “nice to haves”, they’re increasingly being used to inform daily decisions and to streamline tasks that used to take hours.
So while the catalyst for upgrading may be failing hardware, many businesses I work with find that once they move to cloud video, they end up with a more useful, accessible, and future ready system than they had before.
Whether you’re a compliance driven organization, a growing franchise, or a team dealing with outdated hardware, the move to cloud video surveillance is often simpler, and more valuable, than expected.
You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Many of my customers start small and scale up, in fact over 60% of cameras added to Videoloft in 2024 were from existing customers!
I’ve had the privilege of working closely with businesses across industries and geographies, and the thing that stands out most is how similar the core needs are. Everyone wants more control, fewer headaches, and better visibility from their video systems.
If anything in this article sounds familiar, let’s have a conversation. No pressure. Just an open chat about where you are, and where you want to be.
