I think that many SMB's consider this a set-it-and-forget-it system, to be paid attention to only in response to an event. Budget DIY doesn't always work that way. Anecdotally, a friend had such a surveillance system set up, but no plans to store, backup, or copy off the video files from filling up the DVR's drive. It filled up after a few months, and effectively stopped recording.

So, either: A) follow through the setup beyond, "yep, it's recording" and into automated archiving to another storage system periodically to free up space on the disk, or B) set it up to record to a much larger storage system, or C) implement a maintenance schedule to manually clear storage space. Success is in the follow-through over time, not an instantaneous and transitory result.

Considering option B, does anyone know of a security system that uploads its data to a (secure) cloud provider, or is that generally only what the professional services would include?