LONDON — Canon is launching Arcus Global, a cloud-based Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) business built on intellectual property and technology of Milestone Systems.
Based in California, Arcus Global will address the rising global market demand from large enterprises for “Video Cloud Internet of Things (IoT) as a Service” for security and business optimization, according to a news release.
“We have identified Network Visual Solutions (NVS) as a key pillar of Canon’s future growth and have already made important steps in this space including the acquisitions of Milestone Systems and Axis Communications,” says Rokus van Iperen, president and CEO, Canon Europe, Middle East & Africa. “Our investment in Arcus Global Inc. is the latest demonstration of our commitment and strategy to strengthen our position in this rapidly developing market.”
Now a Canon group company, Arcus began as a corporate venture spinoff from the Silicon Valley-based Incubation Lab of Milestone Systems. Product feature sets and release dates have yet to be announced. The company has created a Linkedin page to list a number of job openings.
From the archives: Canon and Milestone Discuss Acquisition in Exclusive SSI Interview
Spinning off Milestone’s Arcus business will allow the company to continue to grow its “leadership position within on premise and private cloud video management solutions, where we continue to increase our investments,” says Lars Thinggaard, president and CEO, Milestone Systems. “We are proud to deliver the technology and know-how that Arcus Global Inc. will use as their foundation.”
Lars Nordenlund Friis, who formerly held the position of vice president of incubation and ventures at Milestone, is CEO of Arcus Global. According to the company’s website, Arcus Global will focus on video management, analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IoT as core elements of its future services and platform.
“We are excited to launch our new company today and to introduce Video Cloud IoT as a Service not currently offered to the global enterprise market. We have a clear competitive advantage by drawing on the strengths of Milestone Systems and partnering with global leaders in public cloud infrastructure and IT technology,” he says. “To maximize that advantage, we’re basing ourselves in California and we are now on a major recruitment drive to bring new highly-skilled employees into the business.”
Friis discusses the new spin-off in the following video.
https://youtu.be/udQFXXJeEFs
