Category: security

Here’s something that many cannabis users are completely ignorant of, but that every cannabis company knows all too well: the cannabis industry, built on the growing and selling of what is becoming an increasingly regulated legal substance, is an industry that has to meet some very strict video surveillance requirements in order to remain in operation. 

Depending on the state your business is located in, these requirements vary widely. A few municipalities, like the state of California, require that you monitor facilities using one-megapixel cameras. Others, meanwhile, only accept footage shot with a device that has at least eight. As if that wasn’t bad enough, each state also has its own mandate on video storage length.

These state-specific rules are, in turn, complimented by more universal rules that are equally if not more demanding. Companies are required to record and store quality footage from cameras looking over every aspect of their operation, every second of every hour of every day, as long as you’re in business. Entrepreneurs caught in violation are subject to fines or, in some cases, foreclosure. 

Finding a surveillance system that can meet all these highly specific standards is difficult enough on its own, and if you’re operating farms and dispensaries in multiple states things get even more confusing—what might be required in one jurisdiction might be forbidden in another. To keep cannabis companies from going up “in smoke,” a Silicon Valley-based software company has devoted all its energy and resources to creating secure cloud-based recording systems. In fact, High Times is using Cloudastructure across several of its new retail stores and intends to implement more locations as it expands.

Cloudastructure Ensures Safety and Security

This company, called Cloudastructure, has been developing cloud-based surveillance systems long before the concept of the “cloud” became mainstream knowledge. In the past, Cloudastructure mostly targeted schools and hospitals, delivering reliable video surveillance products that could be used to spot and prevent incidents, from violent assault to vandalism. 

Now, Cloudastructure is bringing both its signature attention to detail and its focus on safety to the cannabis industry, a place where having a quality surveillance system can be the difference between success and bankruptcy. Aside from video, Cloudastructure is also involved in the worlds of machine learning and computer vision, giving the company’s forward-looking products a competitive edge. 

Cloudastructure’s cloud video surveillance and recording technology is designed to strike a precarious balance between being insanely complex and surprisingly easy to use. Because any and all cameras—even those located at different facilities—are always connected to the cloud, cannabis companies are conveniently presented with a single point of control over their entire operation. 

Having all cameras connected to each other this way comes with many advantages. First and foremost, storing and archiving data is a lot easier in the cloud than it is with real-life hardware, saving companies a ton of administrative labor. Needless to say, the larger their amount of video storage gets, the more appealing cloud-based surveillance becomes. 

From DVRs to Cloud-based

Perhaps what’s most useful about Cloudastructure’s tech is the efficiency with which it can be scaled as a business expands. If your boss is still working with digital video recorders from the 2000s, you know what a hassle setting up a new farm or dispensary can be. Each new camera has to be linked separately, and each facility is left with their own, disconnected store of video.  

When you work with Cloudastructure, the cutting-edge software automatically detects and connects to both new and existing cameras (of any kind). Automatic maintenance and digital upgrades make sure you’ll never end up staring at a black screen when something destructive or alarming is going on, plus facial recognition and sophisticated tagging make searching for a sneaky culprit quicker than ever. 

Because video footage is automatically uploaded to the cloud, it can be accessed from any location on the planet so long as you have a decent internet connection. For businesses, this means that surveillance no longer has to be done on-site, but can now be outsourced to different places. As that wasn’t enough, the cloud also protects your footage from being burned, flooded or stolen. 

In an age where cybersecurity is no longer an imaginary danger but a real threat, some people feel safer storing their data in physical hardware rather than the cloud. Cloudastructure understands such concerns and has designed its technology with them in mind; when data is being uploaded into the cloud, this is done on a figurative one-way street whereupon data can leave your device without malware coming in. 

TA Deadly Threshold Taken Care Of

Though government requirements on video surveillance are important, they are also very strict and not that well known. As we have reported in the past, as much as 72 percent of marijuana start-ups fail to comply with their state’s video and surveillance guidelines, whether that’s because they cannot provide an unobstructed view of their premises or because they don’t correctly store their data. 

With the help of Cloudastructure, these concerns can finally be in the past. By letting this company take care of your surveillance concerns, you—as a business owner—can get back to what got you working in this industry in the first place: your love of cannabis. 

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