On track for significant performance improvement and cost optimization by switching to Google Cloud
AI-enabled video surveillance platform to power thousands of cameras
Leverage native integration of Vertex AI and Google Cloud to optimize AI development, training, and deployment
Remote video monitoring provider Pro-Vigil decided to implement Google Cloud to enable more comprehensive insights to deter crime using its 30,000 onsite cameras.
Remote video monitoring provider Pro-Vigil decided to implement Google Cloud to enable more comprehensive insights to deter crime using its 30,000 onsite cameras.
We process over 70 million video events every month. As our workflow has become increasingly AI-based, efficient training and management of diverse AI models for threat forecasting, behavior recognition, and incident narration has become a critical function. Hence we wanted to switch to a provider that is optimized for AI for the future.
Satish Raj
CTO, Pro-Vigil
Since 2006, Pro-Vigil has been providing comprehensive surveillance solutions to deter crime at primarily commercial properties. The company serves thousands of customers across the United States — from car and boat dealerships to construction sites and critical infrastructure — with its fixed and mobile AI-enabled camera systems.
"Our mission is to prevent theft and vandalism, and we do that through a process called remote video monitoring," says Satish Raj, CTO at Pro-Vigil. "We install video cameras onsite and all monitoring activity happens remotely using AI-based technology, preventing thousands of crimes per month."
Previously built on a different cloud platform, Pro-Vigil wanted to diversify its cloud infrastructure and tap into more robust AI capabilities. While crime prevention is the primary use case to drive the development of its platform, the company's long-term goal is to extract meaningful insights from video feeds to support a wide range of customer needs. To do this, Pro-Vigil turned to Google Cloud.
Creating a scalable crime prevention system
Pro-Vigil's system processes mostly video, which requires intensive compute resources and storage capabilities. However, as the company expanded its video surveillance services and increasingly relied on AI for tasks like object and behavior recognition, predictive risk assessment, and video description, the team realized that its current cloud infrastructure may not be able to support the complexity of its MLOps without a significant increase in cost and effort.
"We process over 70 million video events every month," Raj explains. "As our workflow has become increasingly AI-based, efficient training and management of diverse AI models for threat forecasting, behavior recognition, and incident narration has become a critical function. Hence we wanted to switch to a provider that is optimized for AI for the future."
We needed the ability to develop quickly in a user-friendly environment to create a platform that could scale to handle spikes in workload. Google Cloud gives us cost-effective, easy access to the resources we need, such as GPUs and scalable storage, enabling us to optimize our entire cloud hosting solution.
Satish Raj
CTO, Pro-Vigil
Working with the Google Cloud team, Pro-Vigil mapped out its existing environment within the Google Cloud landscape to determine how best to meet its compute and storage needs. Pro-Vigil then implemented Compute Engine and Cloud Storage to process and store the significant volume of video content it ingests every day. Pro-Vigil expects to achieve significant cost and effort savings by switching to Google Cloud.
"We needed the ability to develop quickly in a user-friendly environment to create a platform that could scale to handle spikes in workload," Raj says. "Google Cloud gives us cost-effective, easy access to the resources we need, such as GPUs and scalable storage, enabling us to optimize our entire cloud hosting solution."
For enhanced security, Pro-Vigil uses Virtual Private Cloud to create isolated and secure networks within the Google Cloud ecosystem. This allows the company to establish firewalls and control traffic flow to protect its data while providing the flexibility to run various types of virtual machines for its processing requirements.
The company also uses Google Workspace for internal communication and collaboration, and recognized the value in unifying all its systems. Teams have been leaning into Gemini for Google Workspace to power productivity across the business, using the tool for software development, notetaking during meetings, summarizing emails, and managing calendars. Raj says teams are also using Gems for various business planning purposes such as ensuring alignment between departments on their key business objectives.
The future of video surveillance
Switching from the edge to the cloud or switching between cloud providers is not like switching streaming services. There's a lot that has to happen underneath the surface. It's not an easy process, but Google Cloud makes it feel like it is.
Satish Raj
CTO, Pro-Vigil
In the future, Pro-Vigil plans to use Vertex AI and Vision AI to extract better insights from its customers' video footage. "As of now, we're training our recognition systems using proprietary models, but we know that can only take us so far," Raj explains. "We have built our platform so that we can easily plug in more advanced AI models as they become available. We believe that Google Cloud infrastructure will make this a seamless process."
Remote video monitoring is a real-time, mission critical service, and performing the service at scale requires highly reliable and scalable compute infrastructure. "Switching from the edge to the cloud or switching between cloud providers is not like switching streaming services. There's a lot that has to happen underneath the surface," Raj says. "It's not an easy process, but Google Cloud makes it feel like it is."
Founded in 2006, Pro-Vigil is the largest fully customer-committed provider of video-based solutions. These solutions enable smarter decisions, improved performance, and increased visibility into client businesses. Humanalytics® is the human understanding of video and analytics to provide actionable insights. 'Intelligent Video Insights' are a true benefit to their customers.
Industry: Technology
Location: United States
Products: Cloud Storage, Compute Engine, Vertex AI, Gemini, Google Workspace
About Google Cloud partner- Zazmic
Zazmic Inc. is a US-based company that solves development, operations, cloud infrastructure, and security challenges so organizations can focus on their core business.
