Video surveillance

Recording in the cloud or on your own recorder?

Both work. They differ in where the footage sits, who can reach it, what happens when the line goes down and which costs keep running.

The short answer

Cloud camera or own recorder — which makes more sense for a business?

A recorder (NVR) on your own premises makes sense when footage must not leave the company, when several cameras record continuously and when the internet line is limited — data stays local, the retention period is yours to set, and a line outage does not stop recording. A cloud solution makes sense with few cameras, several small sites without a technical room, and when nobody on site wants to look after hardware. From a data protection view the decisive difference is not cloud versus local but who has access, how long footage is kept and whether that is actually configured. NDVDL plans and installs both and sets retention periods and access rights technically rather than promising them.

The essentials in four points

  • With your own recorder the footage stays in the building; with a cloud solution it sits with the provider — including the question of which country and who has access there.
  • Cloud cameras stream outwards continuously: the upload needed grows with every camera and is the limiting factor on many connections.
  • If the internet line fails, a local recorder keeps recording — a pure cloud solution only as far as the camera itself buffers.
  • Retention periods and access rights are configurable in both variants; what matters is that they are configured and documented, not where the disk sits.
01

What a cloud solution means in practice

In a cloud solution every camera sends its image over the internet line to the provider, who stores it and serves it back through an app or web interface. No recording hardware sits on site that could fail, fill up or be stolen — the provider takes care of storage, updates and the availability of their platform.

The price is a permanent dependency: on the line, on the subscription and on the provider's terms. Anyone switching after three years takes their cameras along, but usually not their recordings. And the question of which legal jurisdiction the footage sits in, and who at the provider can access it, belongs before the decision — not into the data protection documentation afterwards.

  • No recording hardware on site, but recurring fees per camera
  • Access from anywhere without setting up your own remote access
  • Footage sits with the provider — clarify location, access and export beforehand
02

What your own recorder delivers

A network video recorder (NVR) sits in your own building, receives the camera streams over the local network and stores them on its own disks. Recording therefore continues independently of the internet line, and image data only leaves the company if someone explicitly sets up remote access.

In exchange there is hardware to look after: disks age, updates want installing, and a device standing in an unlocked technical room is the first thing to disappear in a break-in. A recorder therefore belongs in a locked area, inside the surveillance coverage itself, and with a plan for failure.

  • Recording continues when the line goes down
  • Retention time and access are entirely under your control
  • Needs space, power, maintenance and a locked location
03

Data protection: the actual dividing line

Video surveillance is processing of personal data regardless of where the footage sits. Three things decide: a retention period that is configured and deletes automatically; access rights that are named and traceable; and signage for the monitored areas. These points have to be settled for cloud and local recorder alike.

The difference lies in who is involved: a cloud solution adds another processor, requiring a data processing agreement, and its storage locations and sub-processors become part of your documentation. With your own recorder that circle stays smaller — but full responsibility for configuration and deletion stays in the building.

  • Configure the retention period technically instead of promising it organisationally
  • For cloud: processing agreement, storage location and sub-processors in writing
  • Name the access rights — who may view and export footage?
04

Bandwidth, outages and what counts when it matters

Cameras produce a continuous stream. With local recording that stream stays inside your own network and only loads the cabling; with cloud recording it leaves through the upload of the internet line, permanently and in parallel with everything else. On connections with a narrow upload that is where a cloud solution hits its practical limit, long before cost does.

The second real-world case is retrieving one particular recording. What counts there is not the storage technology but the preparation: who may export, how quickly the clip is found, and whether the cameras' clocks are set correctly at all. A case that fails because of a wrong clock is more common than one that fails because of the storage model.

  • Calculate upload per camera before the decision, not after
  • Set up time synchronisation — otherwise the clip cannot be placed
  • Define export path and authorised people in advance

When each variant fits

Few cameras, several small sites, nobody on site for hardware — then a cloud solution has a lot going for it, provided upload, storage location and contract terms have been checked. Several cameras recording continuously, a limited upload, or the requirement that footage must not leave the company — then your own recorder is the sounder choice. In both cases legal safety is not decided by the technology but by whether retention, access rights and signage are actually in place. We plan both and say in the first conversation which one fits the site.

How does it look at your site?

We look at your situation and say honestly which option fits — including when that is the smaller one.

footer.solutions.items.undefined

Not sure which variant fits your site?

We look at the connection, the sites and the requirements and say honestly what is enough — free and without obligation.

Rather talk it through? Call us — you reach someone who knows the technology.

+43 800 007075

Your data is used solely to process your inquiry.

Follow-ups

What else we get asked about this

Yes, if the usual requirements are met: legitimate interest, signage for the monitored areas, limited retention, regulated access rights and a data processing agreement with the provider. It also has to be documented where footage is stored and which sub-processors are involved. Assessing the individual case is a matter for legal advice; the technical implementation — periods, rights, logging — is what we set up.

That depends on resolution, frame rate and compression and differs considerably between models. Only a calculation with the figures of the cameras actually planned is reliable — and for all cameras at once, because they send in parallel. We check this against the existing connection before the decision.

Cloud recording pauses. Some cameras buffer locally on a memory card and upload once the connection returns — the size and duration of that buffer varies a lot by model. A local recorder, by contrast, keeps recording regardless of the internet line.

Yes. A common arrangement is continuous local recording on the recorder plus offloading selected events or a short-term archive to the cloud. That keeps independence from the line while protecting against losing the recorder in a break-in or fire.

In data protection terms the controller remains the business operating the cameras — the provider is a processor. What matters in practice is the export path: before signing, it should be clear in which format and by which route footage can be extracted, and what happens to it when the subscription ends.

Not sure which variant fits your site?

We look at the connection, the sites and the requirements and say honestly what is enough — free and without obligation.

Request a first consultation+43 800 007075