ProActive building on record year

FARMINGDALE, N.Y.—ProActive Data Storage and Monitoring was born out of the necessity to solve one of the biggest technology challenges in security today: storing large amounts of data for long periods of time at reasonable rates. Led by partners Tom Maggio and Michael Biordi, ProActive is coming off a year of tremendous growth, as the company continues to raise awareness about its unique compression software that was created by integrators for integrators and dealers.

“I have an integration company with 35 employees and we are installing about 800 cameras per month here in New York. The whole idea for ProActive started about five years ago when we recognized that there was a massive gap in the industry when it comes to storing data,” Maggio told Security Systems News. “We were being held accountable for things that weren't our fault—hard drive failures, data being overwritten, camera signals going out, whatever the case might have been—so, instead of just being an integration company, we started to explore this idea of software development.”

Today, the company offers two solutions: Vault Data Storage and Pulse Monitoring. Vault Data Storage provides customized storage solutions on premises and in the cloud, or both, using a compression algorithm that Maggio said provides the “secret sauce” for how the company is able to provide storage at “a fraction of the cost” of its competitors. Pulse Monitoring provides immediate notification via text and/or email when any part of the system is malfunctioning for any reason.

“On the basis of 14 hours of motion on 128 cameras, to store one year on site at 1080P with my compression software, we need a total of 20TB—that is it—which is how we can keep the price down and be so scalable,” he explained.  “We can do up to four years both on site and in the cloud. For example, we are archiving data for 101 cameras at 1080P for four years, and the dealer cost on that was $35,000, whereas our competition was about $350,000. So, it is becoming a no-brainer, and we have seen incredible growth in 2017 because we are able to bring this solution at this cost to integrators. In the last quarter, we have at least tripled, if not quadrupled in revenue because of the pricing structure we can now offer with this solution.”

Allan Liers with Metro Sales Group, a national sales representative for ProActive, pointed out that the idea is to make storage solutions affordable for end users while offering the ability to create an RMR (recurring monthly revenue) opportunity for dealers and integrators that is not going to hinder their sales cycle.

“Dealers are really excited that this is an RMR business model created by a dealer for dealers,” Liers noted. “They understand that it is getting harder and harder to make a profit and good margins from a hardware sale today, and this is a solution that is not only solving a problem, but is also creating a nice RMR stream for them. The ability is to add new RMR to an existing business model with no investment, commitments or quotas which makes becoming a certified partner especially attractive.”

As the length of time required to keep video continues to increase, many end users need storage for up to three to five years. For example, the Cannabis industry requires four years of video storage in some states, while the statute of limitations for workplace liability suits in New York is three years. “Lawyers have figured out that if you wait for a certain period of time, there won't be any video footage saved,” Liers said. “We have been to court with the product and technology several times, and we know it does hold up in court and we are able to give end users peace of mind that they are going to have their video when the time comes.”

He continued, “We are getting interest from state-owned colleges, and even municipalities, because they self insure, and that liability suit can take, for example, $80,000 out of their coffers to settle the claim, so there is a huge return on investment when they use this product.”

Moving forward, Maggio is excited to “continue to spread the word about our storage solution and educate people about the fact that there is a solution to the largest gap in the security industry today, which is the reliability of storing and having that data for as long as you need it at an affordable cost.”