Did Cisco Misstep with its SMB Play?

Cisco's small business play yesterday was more than just an announcement of four new infrastructure and communication products. It's a reaffirmation of a basic tenant for Cisco drive value into the SMB's underlying data networks by enabling more applications to share that network. That's a smart strategy when the applications work as effectively on their own network as on a common network, but when you're talking video surveillance, network consolidation can put your business at risk. 

Cisco has been pushing SMBs to leverage their underlying data networks for more than just data now for several years now, the most prominent example being Cisco's Unified Communications System. Yesterday's announcement continued that strategy with the introduction of Cisco PVC300 IP Camera, an IP video surveillance solution that helps small companies protect their employees and business property via live video. The device, available for $794, manages up to 16 cameras from one location and allows video to be viewed anywhere, including on Internet-enabled mobile phones.

Time cards are another application that's being brought onto the small business network. The new release of Cisco Smart Business Communications System version with 1.5 includes Cisco TimeCardView, which allows staff to clock in and out, track hours and download information to payroll applications from their IP phone.

Adding these and other applications to the data network will help business owner justify their investment in better data infrastructure, something that suits Cisco just fine. Putting voice calling or time card applications on your network makes plenty of sense as it eliminates hardware costs and can enable those applications to be made more accessible to users.

Running surveillance video over the network also means putting all of your eggs in one basket. It may be cheaper to run your surveillance video over the data network, but when your business is attacked, your network is going to become a prime target. The very system that's meant to protect your business is likely to become the object of the attack itself.

Separation of systems is a basic element of any security posture.  It's a major reason why IDS/IPS and firewalls are isolated from non-security applications. It's a reason why one startup here in Israel, Yoggie Systems, has moved anti-virus and anti-malware off of the user's PC or Mac onto an adjoining USB or ExpressCard hardened computer.

Organizations who are interested in the Cisco route should be sure that video streams are encrypted and authenticated. They should also put into place an out-of-band network, such as WiFi, in case the primary network fails. It'll add to your costs, but that will be nothing if your video survillenace system is compromised at the wrong time.