Redundancy for XProtect Express+ and Professional+

Executive Summary

Milestone XProtect is deployed across industries in four levels: Express+, Professional+, Expert, and Corporate. In Express+ and Professional+, there is no native redundancy — if a server goes down, monitoring is interrupted until the issue is manually resolved.

Vega Systems' Redundancy Management Framework (RMF) changes this. By adding redundancy directly into Express+ and Professional+ deployments, RMF ensures that monitoring continues uninterrupted during server failures, eliminating the need for costly upgrades to higher editions for customers who cannot justify or afford them.

The combined XProtect + RMF solution sets Milestone apart in the market. While other VMS platforms restrict redundancy to premium editions, XProtect with RMF delivers cyber-secure redundancy across all editions, making resilience and business continuity accessible to organizations of all sizes and budgets.

A Use Case Challenge: Redundancy at Scale without Costly Upgrades

A global manufacturer operates approximately 100 XProtect Professional+ single-server deployments, featuring more than 8,500 cameras, primarily for local monitoring of production and factory processes.

• Current state: Each XProtect system's SQL Database is backed up nightly, but there is no live redundancy. If a server fails, monitoring is lost until it is repaired or restored.

• Problem: The company explored redundancy but was discouraged by the cost of upgrading Professional+ to Expert or Corporate, as well as the additional management server failover licensing.

• Risk: Outages leave facilities blind during critical events, and reliance on SQL replication would still expose the environment to cyber threats.

This is a common market challenge: organizations with large Express+ or Professional+ estates face high costs associated with adding redundancy.

Solution: Cyber-Secure Redundancy with RMF for Professional+ (or Express+)

The Vega Systems Redundancy Management Framework (RMF) offers a practical and cost-effective path to redundancy for XProtect Express+ and Professional+ deployments, without requiring upgrades to Expert or Corporate.

Redundant System Design

• A second Professional+ server is added at each site.

• This server runs its own Management Server, Recording Server(s), and SQL database, and shares the same Milestone License Code (SLC) as the primary system. There is no additional XProtect licensing cost.

• Each camera streams to both servers simultaneously, ensuring no gaps in recorded evidence if one server fails.

Cyber-Secure Synchronization

• RMF manages API-level synchronization between the two servers, ensuring that configuration data — such as cameras, roles, groups, and views — is securely and accurately cloned.

• Unlike blind SQL replication, RMF's object-level sync prevents corrupted or malicious data from spreading across the pair.

• Each server remains a wholly independent XProtect site, allowing patching, rebooting, or recovery without disrupting the other.

Seamless Client Connectivity

• If client applications cannot connect to the primary system due to an outage or maintenance, RMF automatically enables client redirection to the secondary system.

  • DNS Access is required.

• Operators retain access to live and recorded video, maintaining full situational awareness during server downtime.

Asymmetric Recording Options

Organizations can choose to record at a lower bitrate, framerate, or shorter retention on the redundant server— reducing bandwidth and disk consumption, while still guaranteeing a full-quality backup on the primary server. See: https://youtu.be/jaGwtBUrb4E

Media Backfill

• Beginning in H2-2025, RMF will also provide media backfill between redundant servers.

• If one server fails, RMF will automatically retrieve and synchronize the missing recordings from its peer. Backfill ensures that both systems always maintain a complete, gap-free video archive, even after temporary outages.

Business Benefits

• Lower cost: Roughly 50–70% lower cost than upgrading to higher XProtect versions.

• Higher resilience: Monitoring continues through failures or cyberattacks.

• Stronger cybersecurity: Independent SQL databases with API-level synchronization reduce the attack surface and eliminate the risk of contamination.

• Simpler operations: Both servers share the same Milestone SLC, minimizing licensing complexity.

• Future-proof: With upcoming media backfill, RMF delivers continuous evidence integrity across redundant systems.

Conclusion

Redundancy is vital for any video management system; however, Milestone XProtect Express+ and Professional+ do not come with built-in redundancy. Vega Systems' Redundancy Management Framework (RMF) fills this gap. For Express+ and Professional+, RMF adds redundancy that would typically require expensive license upgrades. RMF is not just a cheaper solution — it is a forward-looking investment that transforms XProtect into the only VMS platform in the market offering cyber-secure redundancy, from entry-level setups to global enterprises.