VIVOTEK Accelerates Launch of VORTEX, Its Cloud Surveillance Platform, by 12 Months with AWS IoT Core

VIVOTEK, established in 2000, provides security surveillance solutions worldwide. With headquarters in Taiwan, the company has offices and subsidiary businesses across the US, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and Asia. It specializes in manufacturing security equipment, particularly internet protocol (IP) cameras, which transmit video data across networks for central storage.

VIVOTEK revolutionized its architecture by using the cloud to develop video-surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS) offerings. With VSaaS, customers store video data in a scalable cloud infrastructure, enabling multi-location management, centralized device control, remote monitoring, and a 24/7 security posture. VSaaS solutions also offer streamlined IT management by eliminating the need to maintain underlying hardware, while providing more intuitive browser-based interfaces. ShengFu Cheng, vice president of the Strategy Business Division at VIVOTEK, adds, “Deploying VSaaS solutions across multiple sites is now simpler, with one-click firmware over-the-air [OTA] upgrades as a routinely available feature.”

In 2022 VIVOTEK redefined its solution with a hybrid model and developed VORTEX, a VSaaS platform integrating video management services (VMS), a high-quality artificial intelligence (AI) camera, and cloud backup features. To ensure seamless global delivery of VORTEX, VIVOTEK sought a reliable and scalable cloud infrastructure. Given VIVOTEK’s successful engagement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its previous offering, VIVOCloud—a web-based solution facilitating access to IP cameras via smartphones and other mobile devices—AWS was a logical choice for this next-generation platform.

ShengFu says, "Since the launch of VIVOCloud in 2017, AWS has consistently proven its reliability, and the steadfast support from AWS teams has instilled us with confidence."

When establishing the AWS infrastructure for VORTEX, VIVOTEK employed several of the same services utilized for VIVOCloud. To ensure secure connections between IP cameras and AWS, the company implemented AWS IoT Core, a service capable of connecting billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and routing trillions of messages to AWS services. Furthermore, the flexibility of AWS IoT Core meant VIVOTEK could adopt the MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) protocol, an efficient and cost-effective method for transmitting data between cameras and the cloud.

ShengFu says, “With AWS IoT Core, we can focus on our data streaming technology, analytics capabilities, and other core business areas. We don’t have to spend time managing devices.”

VIVOTEK runs VORTEX’s VSaaS applications in Kubernetes containers on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) automating container deployment, scaling, and management. To further simplify management, VORTEX uses Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for application databases, Amazon DynamoDB for unstructured data, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for video data storage and backups. Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) also sends push notifications to apps and customer devices.

VIVOTEK protects its AWS environments through AWS WAF  and Amazon GuardDuty, an intelligent threat detection service. Meanwhile, Amazon Cognito handles customer identity and access management at the infrastructure’s front end.

By using tried-and-tested AWS services, VIVOTEK significantly reduced development time—bringing VORTEX to market, including full-stack web and mobile apps, in just 12 months. “We saved a year in the development process by using AWS IoT Core for the launch of VORTEX, as it eliminated the need to design a solution for connecting cameras to the cloud,” ShengFu explains.

In 2022, VIVOTEK introduced VORTEX on a subscription basis to its global customers. The launch came with advanced object recognition technology across people and vehicles for AI-powered video analytics, instant notifications, and false alarm minimization. Moreover, the VSaaS solution requires zero configuration, and customers can deploy the camera by scanning a QR code, enabling centralized remote monitoring and saving on-site setup time.

Following the launch, VORTEX is focused on enhancing the user experience to ensure an efficient operational environment and provide flexibility for business adaptation, all without requiring the replacement of existing cameras. This approach streamlines migration efforts and facilitates smoother transitions. VORTEX also provides features such as line-crossing detection, loitering detection, and path extraction. Moreover, it offers future capabilities aimed at expanding the surveillance ecosystem, enabling customers to leverage metadata and unlock actionable insights.

Looking ahead, the company aims to process image and cloud-based data more efficiently as it advances VORTEX’s AI-powered features. “We appreciate AWS's commitment in aligning with our development goals and finding ways to improve performance without increasing costs,” says ShengFu.

ShengFu concludes, “We’re excited to continue enhancing VORTEX. More than 80 percent of our resources can go towards driving innovation because managing our infrastructure on AWS is so simple.”