Eagle Eye’s acquisition of Panasonic’s cloud management services extends global reach
No one has ever accused Eagle Eye Networks Inc.’s CEO Dean Drako and his executive staff of being small thinkers. To the contrary, now that Eagle Eye has announced its acquisition of Panasonic Cloud Management Service Europe B.V. (PCMSEU) makers of Panasonic Cameramanager and Panasonic Nubo, the organization can now boast about being the world’s first global cloud video surveillance company. PCMSEU operated the largest number of cloud recorded cameras in Europe and now combined with Eagle Eye’s major footprint in both the United States and Asia-Pacific, this marriage creates what is believed to be the world’s largest cloud video solution provider.
“The reason this made so much sense for us is that it opened the last big market for us. The U.S. market for Eagle Eye has been going gangbusters since its launch, but unbeknownst to most people is the great success we have had in Asia. APAC was one of Dean’s biggest focuses when he ran Barracuda {Networks} and because of the similarities in the business models and the architecture, along with the similarities in relationships with end users, he was able to get back into that Asian marketplace very quickly with Eagle Eye,” explains Ken Francis, who joined Eagle Eye Networks in 2016 as president after spending over two years consulting to the industries’ leading service providers on product management, services and acquisition following stints with ADT, Securadyne and UTC. “Coupled with a strong distribution network in Japan, this has made for a strong Asian presence. So now we are seeing sustained growth in the U.S. and Asia, but a market in Europe where growth is waning. That meant we needed to increase the focus on Europe.”
Panasonic Cloud Management Service Europe B.V. will be renamed ‘Eagle Eye Networks B.V.’ and will function as the European Headquarters for Eagle Eye – selling and supporting the expanded Eagle Eye product line.
“Our dealers in Europe have responded with overwhelming support for this acquisition. It will greatly enhance our sales and support efforts in the European market,” says Drako. “The strong and experienced team in cloud video surveillance at our new Eagle Eye EMEA Headquarters will make it possible for us to provide a tremendous level of support to all of our dealers in the region.”
All of PCMSEU’s employees have been retained. The management team of Rishi Lodhia and Tijmen Vos are continuing to drive the business as Managing Director and Technical Director of Eagle Eye Networks EMEA.
The Panasonic Cameramanager product will be renamed “Eagle Eye CameraManager.” Eagle Eye plans to increase investment and support of the product to expand its sales globally for those customers that desire direct camera to cloud connectivity. The CameraManager solution does not have an onsite bridge device, as the Eagle Eye Cloud Security Camera VMS does, and can, therefore, be more cost effective for smaller camera counts per location. The company expects to quickly expand the global markets that Eagle Eye CameraManager serves.
CameraManager’s cloud surveillance products are popular amongst resellers and customers for their reliability, ease of use, and rich feature set, which includes optional storage methods, motion detection, push notifications, and cloud-based video analytics. CameraManager is the ideal video solution for small and medium-sized businesses seeking an affordable, quality cloud solution with small camera counts.
Some of the features offered by CameraManager include:
- View video from mobile application
- Storage in the cloud or local storage SD-cards plus cloud back-up if SD-card fails
- Push-notification and/or email the moment a camera detects motion, sound or heat
- Zero-configuration cloud-based video analytics service
The Panasonic Nubo solution, which is part of the acquisition, is geared towards the lower end of the commercial market and residential side. It provides Eagle Eye with a bridgeless solution for smaller camera count applications. With a unique LTE camera, it will also offer mobile video monitoring.
Francis says that with the combined solutions offered by Eagle Eye Cloud Security Camera VMS, coupled with the new Eagle Eye CameraManager and NuboCam, dealers will have a broad array of solutions available from any cloud provider in the world.
“We find that in the commercial mid-market and above a bridge enabled solution is the preference. When you reach that enterprise level your customer wants the ability to integrate to thousands of different camera types,” Francis adds. “But Nubo is primarily a personal-type of CCTV to be used at home or as one travels in a hotel or can also be used in markets like construction sites. Cameramanager works with Axis cameras and when Panasonic made the acquisition they obviously introduced their brand into this solution as well. Our immediate focus is to make sure that users that buy a Cameramanager system can use those Panasonic cameras and then upgrade to an Eagle Eye VMS through the use of a bridge that connects to the legacy camera, thus protecting the investment the customer has already made.”
