Verkada Reviews: Physical Security for IT
Linda Cheng
Sr. Integrated Marketing Manager
With Verkada, thousands of IT professionals have centralized and strengthened physical security at their organizations, effectively reducing incident resolution time from days to minutes. Security cameras, access control, and environmental sensors are seamlessly integrated on the web-based Command platform, making it simple to manage all devices at scale from anywhere in the world. Encrypted in transit and at-rest, zero-configuration setup, automatic updates, Active Directory/SSO/SAML Integration, and 10-year warranties on all hardware are just some of the many reasons why technology leaders choose Verkada.
In these testimonials, IT customers speak to their experience with Verkada's top-rated physical security system.
Verkada Reviews from IT Professionals
*Simple, Smart, and Infinitely Scalable “The best part of Verkada is the multitude of benefits. We’re able to centrally manage cameras for all sites in one, cloud-based platform. We can access footage from any desktop or smart device with app connectivity. We can share access within our organization with quick acclimation for new users. We have high-quality images and fewer cameras. We have more time, as a team, to focus on areas other than camera security and surveillance. We’re saving money on all of the above. The ease, quality, and affordability of this solution has been great for us and makes sense for any team with similar challenges and requirements to manage surveillance across several locations.”
Brian Pond, CIO and Vice President of Technology, The Greater Wichita YMCA Read Full Verkada Review >
Centralized Management for Sensors, Access Control, and Video Security “Having an all-in-one system like Verkada means I can centrally access cameras and sensors on one platform. If I receive a sensor alert, I can quickly access that data and the corresponding video footage without having to leave Command.”
John Langrill, Director of IT and Campus Management, Chartwell School Read Full Verkada Review >
Integrated Video Security and Access Control “I can click on any access-based event listed on the live feed, and immediately jump to the corresponding video. I can also pull up a list of doors and see what their schedule looks like as well as whether they’re open, closed, locked, or unlocked.”
Dennis Haynie, Executive Director of Technology, Andrews ISD Read Full Verkada Review >
25 kbps Minimal Bandwidth Consumption “Even while streaming in low-resolution, our analog cameras have an upload usage of 20-22 Mbps and download usage of 147-157 Mbps. Comparatively, Verkada cameras consume only a fraction of the bandwidth with an upload usage of 15-20 kbps and download usage of 93-148 kbps. It’s very minimal traffic on the network so we can devote more towards instruction and learning, which is a much better use of our bandwidth.”
Dennis Haynie, Executive Director of Technology, Andrews ISD Read Full Verkada Review >
30% Cost Reduction by Eliminating NVRs “Verkada gave us immediate ROI and resulted in a 30% cost reduction compared to other solutions on the market. We were able to eliminate our existing servers and NVR devices while gaining higher levels of storage retention without impacting our WAN bandwidth.”
Federico Abis, Information Technology Manager, Heinemann Australia Read Full Verkada Review >
50x Faster Footage Retrieval and SSO Integration “To say that pulling footage is 50 times faster would be a conservative estimate. I can securely access cameras on my tablet or phone from anywhere, and have secure credentials at the front end with Okta integration. At a glance, I can quickly see where the activity occurred on a timeline, and apply search parameters like ‘a man wearing a blue shirt’ to immediately find what I need.”
Dave Ledoux, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Nizhoni Health Read Full Verkada Review >
Hybrid Cloud Storage to Local SSD and Unlimited Cloud Archiving
“With DVRs and NVRs, you have to guess how much storage is left while maintaining at least a 30-day history. Depending on how many cameras there are or any issues that arise, you might discover only 14 days of video footage are available when there should be 30 to 90 days. With a hybrid cloud infrastructure, reliability is no longer a concern; video data is saved both onboard the camera and to cloud-based servers.”
Marshall Frost, VP of Corporate Systems, Avita Pharmacy Read Full Verkada Review >
Encrypted in transit and at-rest at Rest and in Transit “The Verkada system makes outbound-only connections to AWS cloud services. We’ve eliminated a number of insecure components, practices, and protocols that we had with our DVR system such as open ports, port-forwarding, and unencrypted data storage.”
Nick Warr, Head of Information Technology (IT), Bossa Studios Read Full Verkada Review >
Seamless Access from Anywhere “If I could describe Verkada in five words, it would be ‘seamless video access from anywhere.’ Whether I’m on the go, or at my desk, I’m able to get to what I need from my phone or desktop. I remember my first demo… I was sent a Verkada live link and in a matter of seconds, I was looking at a feed of (Verkada’s) kitchen straight from my mobile browser. It blew me away. I asked, ‘how much do these cameras cost and how fast can I get them?’”
Steve Shala, VP and CIO, Shaner Hotel Group Read Full Verkada Review >
Edge-Based People and Vehicle Analytics “We find people of interest in seconds, either through Face Match or by applying a filter for gender and clothing color. Verkada instantly searches across all our cameras and find who we’re looking for. Motion-based search is useful to instantly see moments in time where movement was detected, as opposed to blindly rewinding through hours and hours of footage. Now that we have these search capabilities, we can’t imagine going back.”
Nick Peers, IT Technical Manager, ClwydAlyn Housing Association Read Full Verkada Review >
Cradlepoint Support for Remote Connectivity “If you can imagine, at any point in time we have hundreds of RV units parked in our lots, wired ISP connectivity wasn’t possible given the size of the area. Verkada provides options for remote connectivity, so our team uses Cradlepoint to get cameras online quickly and effortlessly.”
Malachi Salazar, Director of IT & Marketing, Fun Town RV Read Full Verkada Review >
Quick Device Installation via QR Code “The setup process is incredibly forgiving. As soon as the technician installs the camera, I input the QR code and access live footage on Verkada’s software. This allows me to confirm whether its set up correctly, or it needs to be adjusted.”
David Dodd, Head of Technology Solutions, Third Bridge Read Full Verkada Review >
Industry Leading 10-Year Warranty “I like the upfront and transparent pricing model. Verkada has a 10-year warranty on their products. Maintenance would be basically free, other than the time it would take to install.”
Dan Layton, Chief Technology Officer, Zionsville Community Schools Read Full Verkada Review >
Find Footage in Seconds with Motion Grid Search “Instead of having somebody sit down in front of an hour-long feed and go through the entire hour to look for something, we can do searches on motion in a particular part of the frame.”
Christopher Walker, Director of IT, Mental Health Center of Denver Read Full Verkada Review >
Long-Term TCO Savings “My advice to others is, ‘It’s worth the switch from traditional to hybrid cloud.’ Other IT directors have asked me how I deployed Verkada, or how I got it approved budget-wise. I just showed them the simplicity of the system, and how much it’ll save us in the long run.”
Daniel Vera, Director of IT, City of Edinburg Read Full Verkada Review >
Up to 365 Days of Onboard Storage and System Health Alerts “If there’s an extended power outage, the camera will continue to record and store video data onboard. We also set up proactive alerts so we’re immediately notified if they go down; with the old system, we wouldn’t know if the camera was offline unless somebody told us.”
Christopher Walker, Director of IT, Mental Health Center of Denver Read Full Verkada Review >
Viewing Station with Customizable Layouts “The Viewing Station gives our Police Department a live view of events happening during emergency situations. It’s easy to manage as well—through Command I have complete control over how camera grids are set up. Plus, the graphics and processing power provide a fluid experience for the user. The best part is that it’s effortless for the team to use—you just turn on the (viewing station) and the cameras come up.”
Jeff Thompson, IT Manager, City of Havre de Grace Read Full Verkada Review >
Empower End Users with Granular Permissions “Not only is Verkada’s platform incredibly easy to use, it allows me to manage user permissions from a single account. As a result, the entire team now has access to an incredibly powerful tool. “[Campus security and administrators] are more independent. And for me, it’s been great to be able to manage everything at a higher level.”
Brad Breaux, Chief Information Officer, South Louisiana Community College Read Full Verkada Review >
Reduce Incident Response Time from Days to Minutes “Verkada allows our IT team the ability to provide high-quality footage to stakeholders and necessary authorities, while cutting response time down from days to minutes.”
Dan Dauer, VP of IT, World Oil Corp. Read Full Verkada Review >
Zero-Configuration Installation “I’d recommend Verkada to everybody. During my 30-year tenure with IT, I’ve spent time with cameras at all different price points and none of them can even begin to compare. With the Verkada cameras, I scan a serial number and they’re ready to go in two minutes—that’s an installer’s dream.” Gene Stec, Director of IT, Contract Logistics and Facilities, Yusen Logistics Read Full Verkada Review >
Future-Proofed with Automatic Feature Updates “In the period of time that I’ve used Verkada, I’ve seen numerous new additions to the technology stack. People analytics, vehicle search, and crowd alerts; all of these features make it easier for me to conduct investigations and reduce response time.”
Dan Lynch, Network Engineer & IT Administrator, Hanover Displays Read Full Verkada Review >
Simplified Access Management and Credentials “I have access groups divided by campus and tiered access levels that determine which doors those groups have permissions for. The setup was really easy, we imported all our users and their credentials from our student information system. We use the same proximity badges for access control as we do for time clocks, so our staff can carry just one badge that works on everything.”
Dennis Haynie, Executive Director of Technology, Andrews ISD Read Full Verkada Review >
Reduce False Positives by +50% with Customizable Motion Alerts “I’m able to get very granular with motion alerts. I limit motion detection to certain hours (after school), and specific areas (such as doors). The level of customization we have with these motion grids has reduced our false-positives by over 50%.”
John Langrill, Director of IT and Campus Management, Chartwell School Read Full Verkada Review >
Intuitive Cloud-Based Software Platform “It took (my team) no time at all to understand how to use the system. In a day, we felt like we’d been Verkada for years. You don’t need to be technical to understand how to use the software. You can find exactly what you’re looking for in seconds.”
Ken Kellenberger, Director of IT, TWG Read Full Verkada Review >
Role-Based Permissions and Full Audit Logs “We have the luxury of being able to delegate specific users to view specific cameras. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access archives and videos for sensitive areas—for example, a maintenance operator won’t get access to the HR interview room. Additionally, we can easily trace any actions made on the platform back to whoever performed them. If a clip is deleted or modified, we can check the Audit Logs to quickly know who did it.”
Russ Shepard, VP of IT, Electric Research and Manufacturing Cooperative, Inc. Read Full Verkada Review >
Person of Interest Alerts and Face Match “Verkada ticked all the boxes for us: cloud-based, reliable, remotely accessible on a mobile app, and it has a notification system…If someone identified as a close contact comes onsite, we’ll be immediately notified via text message. From there, we can use Face Match to find out where they’ve been and who they’ve been in contact with.”
Bruce Johnson, IT Director, RSU 13 Read Full Verkada Review >
Ease of Sharing, Accessing, and Finding Footage “With Verkada, we can control internal access to footage and provide archived clips with outside entities–like the police or fire department–when necessary. The ability to see what is going on in the system without my team having to create some technical magic to make that happen is a huge win. The time-lapse functionality [on Command] allows us to scroll through scenes quickly, rather than having to sit and play the entire video and wait for a particular incident.”
Dean Farar, CIO, Yuma Union School District Read Full Verkada Review >
Unlimited User Seats at No Cost “It took (my team) no time at all to understand how to use the system. In a day, we felt like we’d been Verkada for years. You don’t need to be technical to understand how to use the software. You can find exactly what you’re looking for in seconds.”
Ken Kellenberger, Director of IT, TWG Read Full Verkada Review >
Provision Users in Seconds “Outside access is a must in cameras today, where it wasn’t 12 years ago. Not just to a camera, but to all cameras.[The impact] was tremendous, because it’s so simple to use. So now, anybody can use it. You can add any user, give them any rights within seconds—versus minutes and hours of setup time in traditional cameras.”
Tim Miles, Technology Director, Steamboat Springs School District Read Full Verkada Review >
Share Live Feeds with First Responders “With Verkada, in the case of an incident, you can provide a link to the local sheriff’s department. There’s a live stream, so they can monitor what’s going on. The ability to give them instant access is a huge weight off our shoulders.”
David Rodriguez, Director of IT, Kiona-Benton City School District Read Full Verkada Review >
No Training Required for End Users “The [end] user experience is what we were going for, something that’s a lot cleaner and simpler for them, that just makes sense. [With Verkada] we can basically set up the system, turn it over to our principals—people that actually use the system—and then let them use it independently. We don’t have to think about it.”
Marty Oliver, Technology Director, Godley Independent School District Read Full Verkada Review >
Optional Cloud Backup “We enabled cloud backup to upload footage only at night. I don’t have any bandwidth disruptions during the school day, so it’s not impeding the performance of my network while students and teachers are here.”
Bruce Johnson, IT Director, RSU 13 Read Full Verkada Review >
Instant Lockdown via Mobile App “In an emergency scenario, we can lockdown the campus directly from the mobile app. Any of the principals can initiate a lockdown from their phone, in which case the system will override all door schedules, lock down all buildings, and secure the entire campus in seconds.”
Dennis Haynie, Executive Director of Technology, Andrews ISD Read Full Verkada Review >
One Cloud-Managed Platform for All Physical Security “With Verkada, we combine all our physical security needs on one management interface. We get more functionality, and it continues us down the path of pushing everything to cloud services wherever possible.” Brian Nowak, IT Director, Corporate Central Credit Union Read Full Verkada Review >
Risk-Free, 30-Day Trial “I absolutely recommend Verkada to my peers. I would say definitely sign up for the trial because you’ll be impressed at how quickly you can have it up-and-running, how easy it is, and how much time you save during incident investigations. It’s truly amazing.”
Michael Parkin, Director of IT Security, Chapters Health System Read Full Verkada Review >
To learn more about Verkada for healthcare security, check out our Solutions Guide for IT or visit www.verkada.com/solutions/it/
