Cloud CCTV explained
What “hybrid cloud” actually means, what leaves your site, and what happens when the internet does not.
“Cloud” does not mean your footage is in the cloud
This is the single most misunderstood point in the category, and it matters for bandwidth, cost and data protection.
In a conventional system, cameras stream continuously to a recorder on site and you watch the recorder. In a hybrid cloud system, each camera records to storage inside itself, and the cloud handles management, search and viewing. Video leaves the site when somebody actually watches it, and for backup if you enable it.
So the honest description is: recording is local, management is cloud. Anyone telling you all your footage goes to the cloud is either describing a different product or has not read the documentation.
Five consequences
Bandwidth is modest, not zero
Cameras send encrypted thumbnails and stream when watched. A site with sixty cameras and a busy uplink still needs planning, but it is not sixty continuous streams.
There is no recorder to fail
Which removes the most common cause of ‘we had cameras but there was no footage’.
Cloud backup is optional and not retrospective
Thirty days per camera licence is included, but it is enabled per camera and does not upload anything from before you switched it on.
Retention depends on the model and the storage
Not on the brochure. A CD63 with 512GB is roughly 30 days at standard quality; the same camera with 3TB is roughly 120.
Where the data sits matters
The EU region, Ireland, for UK customers. There is no UK region.
What you keep and what you lose
Worth knowing before the day it happens.
Cameras keep recording
Locally, on the camera, as normal.
You lose remote viewing
And alerts, until the connection returns.
Doors keep working
Controllers hold their configuration and known credentials.
Nothing is lost
The footage is there when the connection is back.
Sources
Everything on this page is taken from these. Checked 25 September 2026.
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