How Michael Dell’s investment will help Eagle Eye Networks move video surveillance to the cloud.

Dean Drako, President & CEO, Eagle Eye Networks

Eagle Eye Networks just took its first outside investment – a multi-million dollar series B investment from Michael Dell, whom I’ve known since I was CEO of Barracuda Networks. As we all know, he’s very successful with great business insights. Rounding out the investment are powerhouses Enrique Salem, previously CEO of Symantec, and Austin Ventures.

When we launched our first product in January, the Wall Street Journal wrote a great article about the launch, stating that our mission was “to do for video surveillance what Dropbox did for file sharing by making video more available and far easier to use.” They were spot on.

More than 22 publications have covered the news about Michael Dell’s investment, with different influencers from across multiple industries weighing in – see our news page. A consistent theme across the board was the increasing investment in cloud video surveillance.

I’ve been asked several times: After funding Eagle Eye myself since the beginning, why did we bring in outside investment? Well, we’ve seen a huge interest in cloud video surveillance. In the five months since we launched our channel partner program, more than 100 resellers and integrators have signed on. With such rapid growth, we need to scale our infrastructure quickly and accelerate our deployment.

With this cash infusion, we will step up our efforts to bring the benefits of the cloud to the industry. You can expect to see upcoming announcements on new data centers, new hires, and product line broadening.

A huge portion of video surveillance around the world runs on old architecture systems using Windows operating systems. Right now their video seems to be locked away in DVRs and NVRs – it’s archaic. As we make video more accessible, all kinds of applications will come to the forefront, improving video surveillance for everyone.

At Eagle Eye Networks, we want to be the number one cloud provider for video surveillance, both for security and operations improvement. We are always employing the latest technologies including: NOSQL databases, distributed computer, redundant storage systems, RESTful API’s, scale-out architecture, and redundancy.

The demand is already there. Two-thirds of companies want a mix of on-site and cloud recording, according to the recent video surveillance survey. This is exactly what Eagle Eye offers, with smooth access to video regardless of recording location.

We provide an opportunity for our channel partners to significantly expand their businesses and to make their customers more profitable. Most of the resellers I speak with tell me they already have 10 to 30 percent of their customers asking for a cloud solution. That will only increase.

Cloud video surveillance is enabling video analytics in ways that have never been done before. For example, imagine a future where it is possible to search all the cameras in a major city for a suspicious vehicle by type and color during a specific time period.

The possibilities are endless. Over time, I believe we can move the vast majority of the entire $30 billion industry to the cloud- after all, that’s what is happening with CRM, storage, and many others.