In a move that underscores its growing ambitions in the surveillance market, Synology has announced the launch of C2 Surveillance, a cloud-native Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) platform that eliminates the need for local servers and complicated licensing. Designed from the ground up for fast deployment, reliable operation, and multi-site scalability, this new offering slots neatly into Synology’s expanding C2 cloud ecosystem—bringing the company’s well-regarded surveillance tools to a fully cloud-managed environment.
Surveillance Without the Server Room
Traditionally, setting up a surveillance system has required a fair bit of legwork—acquiring hardware, configuring storage, licensing cameras, and establishing connectivity between devices across sites. With C2 Surveillance, Synology is taking a different approach.
The system is server-less and license-free, allowing administrators to onboard cameras directly into the cloud interface without worrying about device limits or incurring additional licensing costs. It’s a practical pivot for businesses operating across multiple sites—especially in scenarios where setting up infrastructure at each location is either impractical or too costly.
Plug-and-Play Setup
C2 Surveillance has been designed with user-friendliness front and centre. The installation process is streamlined to the point where even non-technical users can get a site up and running in minutes—from a desktop or a mobile device.
The intuitive Synology interface guides administrators through camera registration and configuration, including AI-powered detection tasks, such as motion or people detection. These are configurable without needing any special expertise, making advanced surveillance capabilities more accessible to smaller businesses or teams with limited IT resources.
Resilience by Design
Perhaps the standout feature of C2 Surveillance is what Synology is calling a “continuity-first architecture.” In short, this means your surveillance system keeps recording—even if your internet connection doesn’t. Each camera records directly to a local microSD card (also known as edge recording), ensuring that no footage is lost during network outages. These recordings can later be synced with the C2 Cloud for off-site backup once connectivity resumes. There’s also a failover offline mode that lets users continue to monitor camera feeds locally, which is critical for environments where downtime simply isn’t an option.
Security is also taken seriously. The platform features AES-128 encryption, multi-factor authentication, and granular permission controls to manage access. From a compliance standpoint, Synology claims adherence to ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and NDAA standards—credentials that should satisfy most enterprise IT and legal teams.
Designed for the Distributed Workplace
As hybrid workforces and distributed operations become the norm, Synology is clearly betting that surveillance needs will follow suit. To that end, C2 Surveillance comes with smart scalability baked in. Administrators can manage all their cameras across different sites through a single centralised interface, eliminating the need to remote into each location individually. With Windows Active Directory integration, businesses can manage identities and permissions using existing systems, while role-based access controls allow fine-grained delegation of authority. For bandwidth-conscious environments, Synology has added a low-bandwidth mode that slashes video transmission data usage by up to 50%—with minimal impact on video quality. This will likely appeal to rural or satellite locations operating on constrained networks.
A Unified Ecosystem
Synology has long been known for its NAS and on-premises surveillance systems like Surveillance Station, which remains a core product for many of its customers. The launch of C2 Surveillance complements this by offering organisations the flexibility to choose between on-prem, hybrid, or full-cloud deployments. What we’re seeing here is a clear continuation of Synology’s strategy to expand the C2 ecosystem into a full suite of cloud services—from storage and backup to identity management and now surveillance. In doing so, Synology is not only simplifying the IT stack for SMEs and branch-heavy enterprises, but also making the case for why its C2 cloud deserves a place in more infrastructure conversations.
C2 Surveillance Availability
C2 Surveillance will be made available later this year, with further details expected to be shared on Synology’s website. Pricing hasn’t been disclosed yet, but given the no-license model, the total cost of ownership could prove attractive for growing businesses looking to scale their monitoring capabilities without scaling IT headcount or hardware.
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Mithun Mohandas
Mithun Mohandas is an Indian technology journalist with 14 years of experience covering consumer technology. He is currently employed at Digit in the capacity of a Managing Editor. Mithun has a background in Computer Engineering and was an active member of the IEEE during his college days. He has a penchant for digging deep into unravelling what makes a device tick. If there's a transistor in it, Mithun's probably going to rip it apart till he finds it. At Digit, he covers processors, graphics cards, storage media, displays and networking devices aside from anything developer related. As an avid PC gamer, he prefers RTS and FPS titles, and can be quite competitive in a race to the finish line. He only gets consoles for the exclusives. He can be seen playing Valorant, World of Tanks, HITMAN and the occasional Age of Empires or being the voice behind hundreds of Digit videos. View Full Profile
