As Windows 10 Nears End-of-Life, Cloud Video Vendors Push Edge-First Architectures
- Sarah o'Neill
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
With Windows 10 approaching end-of-life, organizations running legacy NVR and DVR systems face a practical dilemma: patch, replace, or redesign. Many centralized video environments still depend on Windows-based servers, creating mounting security and maintenance risks tied to aging infrastructure and manual patch cycles.
In a written response to Security Guys, Abraham Alvarez, VP of Product at Verkada, said the transition is accelerating a broader architectural shift away from server-centric deployments.
“Historically, high-camera environments depended on centralized on-prem servers, forcing security and IT teams to estimate storage needs upfront and invest in costly, complex infrastructure that often required a Windows-based patching cycle,” Alvarez said. “With the upcoming Windows 10 EOL, many organizations are realizing that maintaining these legacy NVR/DVR setups is a significant security liability.”
Bandwidth Economics and Edge Storage
Verkada’s approach centers on a hybrid cloud model that keeps primary video storage at the edge. According to Alvarez, cameras transmit roughly 20 kbps of encrypted metadata and thumbnails during steady-state operation, while high-resolution footage remains local unless accessed. Adaptive encoding increases bitrate during motion events to preserve forensic quality and reduces it during inactivity to conserve bandwidth.
The system relies on what Alvarez described as “store-and-forward logic.” If connectivity is constrained, cameras continue recording locally at full resolution and backfill the cloud once bandwidth stabilizes. When users are on the same local network, footage streams directly from the device, avoiding cloud transfer altogether. In high-density deployments such as stadiums or enterprise campuses, this model shifts bandwidth usage from constant upstream load to on-demand access.
Hybrid Integration and Metadata Normalization
Hybrid deployments introduce another challenge. Many enterprises operate mixed environments with legacy cameras alongside newer AI-enabled systems. Alvarez said inconsistent metadata, mismatched timestamps, and uneven event definitions often undermine unified search and event correlation.
“The primary challenge is that legacy systems weren’t built to produce rich, consistent metadata,” he noted.
To address that, Verkada uses a gateway appliance that ingests third-party feeds via ONVIF or RTSP and normalizes metadata at the edge. The objective is to produce a unified timeline across mixed infrastructure, enabling low-latency search and cross-camera tracking without requiring a full rip-and-replace.
As enterprises evaluate post-Windows 10 modernization strategies, the operational questions are sharpening: how much bandwidth can be reduced without sacrificing evidentiary quality, how quickly incidents can be searched across hybrid estates, and how resilient systems remain during network degradation.
For security leaders, the migration debate is no longer cloud versus on-prem. It is about processing location, metadata consistency, and whether legacy infrastructure can be modernized without compounding risk.
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