Understanding Spot AI's Hybrid Storage System: Local and Cloud Storage

Overview

The Spot AI platform leverages a hybrid storage system, utilizing both edge storage (local) and cloud storage capabilities.

Local Storage

Video content ingested by the Spot AI appliance is stored directly on the appliance itself. This offers substantial storage capacity at a fraction of the cost compared to cloud storage, which can be significantly more expensive. However, one limitation of local storage is that in the event of power or internet disruption, the stored video - while safe on the appliance - will be inaccessible until the appliance is back online.

Old video is deleted when the hard drive gets full, a little bit at a time, to free up space for recording new video. There are a lot of factors that will go into how fast the hard drive fills up, and ultimately how much storage the appliance gets, such as video resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and encoding. The appliances are spec'd to get the amount of storage desired (30,60,90,180 days), given the cameras attached are within spec.

Cloud Storage

Spot AI utilizes cloud storage for several key functions. Firstly, all the thumbnails used for segment scrubbing are stored in the cloud. Additionally, any video clips that are shared or added to cases are also stored in the cloud. The advantage of cloud storage is its constant accessibility. Even if the original recording appliance goes offline or the camera gets deleted, the video stored in the cloud remains available. Once video is uploaded to the cloud, it stays in the cloud forever, or until it is manually deleted (clips removed from a case, shares that expire or are deleted).

Cloud storage for clips can be toggled off by navigating to 'Configure > Settings' and unchecking 'Saved Clip Backup'.

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