The document describes a video surveillance as a service solution called Skywatch that is cheaper, easier to use, and smarter than traditional solutions. Skywatch offers cloud-based video recording and live streaming, easy sharing of video, high scalability without the need for on-premise hardware or software, and video analytics capabilities. Case studies show Skywatch can reduce surveillance costs for retailers with multiple locations by up to 3 times while being 8 times easier to manage and providing 288 times smarter capabilities like intelligent video summarization.