Stop Paying for Video Silence: How Micro-Video Slashes Cloud Storage Costs by 90%

The Hidden Tax on Operations: Video Storage

For years, continuous video monitoring (CCTV/VMS) was the standard for oversight. The cost was simple: buy the camera and pay for the hard drive. Today, with the shift to cloud-connected enterprise video, that cost model has been flipped on its head.

We call it the "Tax of Video Silence."

Operations teams are paying exorbitant monthly cloud storage fees for hours of footage that captures nothing—a static warehouse aisle, an empty parking lot, or an idle assembly line. If only 1% of your video captures actual relevant activity, you're paying for 99% silence.

Continuous vs. Event-Based: A 10x Cost Difference

Monitoring Method	Volume (per camera, 30 days)	Relevance (Actionable Data)	Cloud Cost Driver
Continuous Video	~259,200 seconds	< 1%	Storage (Huge)
Micro-Video Capture	~2,500 seconds	~100%	Processing (Minimal)

This post will reveal the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of legacy video systems and demonstrate how Glympsit’s shift to event-based Micro-Video Capture is the simplest way to slash your cloud storage bill by up to 90%.

The True TCO of Legacy Video

The TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of traditional cloud video isn't just the camera and the basic fee; it's a triangle of recurring costs:

1. Storage: The sheer volume of data retention (which grows exponentially).
2. Egress: Hidden fees for retrieving and analyzing video clips.
3. Reviewer Time: Labor cost for humans sifting through irrelevant footage to find the 1% of actionable events.

Glympsit’s Motion Understanding system cuts off the base of that triangle by preventing the wasteful data from ever being stored.

Implementing the 'Capture-Nothing-Extra' Policy

To achieve massive cost savings, you must adopt a 'Capture-Nothing-Extra' Policy. This is enabled by two key Glympsit features:

1. The Dynamic Playbook

Referencing our Designing Micro-Video Capture Playbooks framework, you define only the 5-7 events that matter. The camera system remains dormant (or uses extremely low-bandwidth pre-caching) until a high-confidence trigger (motion, sensor, or voice) is detected. It records only the few seconds before and after the event.

2. Edge Processing & Smart Filtering

Instead of streaming all footage to the cloud for processing, Glympsit processes raw data at the edge. If the system is not 100% confident the event is valuable, the video is discarded locally. Only the validated, high-value Micro-Video is compressed and sent to the cloud, ensuring maximum signal and minimum storage.

The Payoff: A 90% Reduction in Storage Fees

By moving from a continuous (time-based) recording model to an event-based (action-based) capture model, customers instantly realize vast savings.

Beyond the direct reduction in storage fees, the system delivers an immediate ROI through:

• Reduced Labor: Reviewers now look at 100% actionable clips, not 99% silence.
• Lower Egress Fees: You retrieve only the video that is required for investigation or audit.

Ready to turn your costly video storage into valuable, structured data?

→ Request access to the Glympsit Beta