Loading . . .

Demo
Connect
Menu
Demo
Connect
Hero — Which product, and when

Product Guide

Which product, and when

Every Vega product is built for a specific point of failure, or a specific project. Here's which one fits, where it fits, and how they work together to keep critical video online.

Talk to an Engineer Compare RMF & Tandem
15,000+
Channels protected
14
Countries
12
Verticals
Section — Portfolio at a Glance

Each product is built for a specific point of failure, or a specific project. Here's which one fits, and when.

Where Vega sits in the stack

Architecture diagram. Inside a Milestone XProtect data center, Vega Tandem wraps two recording servers that each hold their own media database. RMF spans two data centers, carrying cybersecure SQL sync and media backfill, with per stream failover running inside the Smart Client alongside SureStream. Nidhi backs recorder media up to cloud or SMB storage. XPort moves a data center onto new infrastructure and a new XProtect version. Atlas carries edge cameras into the recorder and is VMS agnostic.
Every product attaches at a different point of failure. RMF spans the sites, Tandem holds the recorders, SureStream lives in the operator's client, Nidhi guards the media, and XPort moves the whole site. Atlas sits below the recorder and stays VMS agnostic.

Always-on Resilience

Site & Datacenter

RMF

Cybersecure redundancy across active-active sites. Object-level synchronization isolates data centers so malware cannot spread.

Milestone XProtect·Perpetual, per device

Recording Server

Tandem

Recorder-only HA, where failover stays invisible to PSIM, access control, and analytics. Two recorders, one identity.

Milestone XProtect·Perpetual, per recorder pair

Operator & Client

SureStream

Keep the video live on the operators' screen during a catastrophic VMS infrastructure failure. Stream directly from cameras to clients.

Milestone XProtect·Perpetual, per device

Retention & Backup

Nidhi

Automated media backup and restoration to the cloud or SMB for disaster recovery.

Milestone XProtect·Annual, per recorder

Project & Lifecycle

Migration & Consolidation

XPort

Move, merge, or split XProtect deployments. Simplify upgrades. Automate life-cycle infrastructure processes and save time and money.

Milestone XProtect·One year license, per destination, per recorder

Edge Transport

Edge & Transport

Atlas

Make cameras on vehicles and remote sites appear to the SOC like local LAN cameras. Save connectivity costs through Edge AI. Automatically adapt streams to bandwidth.

VMS Agnostic·Per-device subscription
Section — RMF vs Tandem

Two redundancy products

RMF or Tandem?

Both deliver active-active redundancy. The difference is the layer they protect.

RMF

Cybersecure redundancy across sites

  • Protects the whole stack. Recording servers in every architecture, plus management server and SQL redundancy across sites in some architectures.
  • Cybersecurity first. Object-level sync stops malware instead of copying it; data centers stay isolated.
  • Asymmetric and per device. Map any camera to any recorder, and license only what you protect.

Tandem

Transparent recorder HA within a site

  • Two recorders, one identity. A strict 1:1 pair that XProtect sees as a single logical recorder.
  • Server-side failover. Takeover happens at the recorder, with zero client footprint.
  • Invisible to integrations. PSIM, access control, and analytics carry on with nothing renamed.

Side by side

  RMF Tandem
Layer protected Recorders, management server, SQL, whole site Recording servers only
Cybersecurity Object sync stops malware; isolated data centers Not a cyber control; mirrors the pair
Failover Client-side, stream-level Server-side, single logical identity
Topology Symmetric, Asymmetric — any camera to any recorder Strict 1:1 recorder pair
Storage retention & Streaming Profiles Independent — primary and secondary can differ Identical on both recorders
Reach Across subnets and dispersed sites Within one XProtect deployment
Licensing Per device Per recorder pair
Client footprint RMF Smart Client plugin None — standard Smart Client
Third-party integrations Redundancy exposed through REST API Transparent — nothing to change
Both sites serving Yes Standby serves only on failover

Common to both: they run on every XProtect variant — including editions without native Milestone failover — and each keeps two recorders capturing continuously, so both eliminate the recording gap that standard XProtect failover leaves behind. Those are shared strengths, not differentiators — the difference is everything above.

Cybersecurity has to live inside the redundancy path, not bolt on afterward — no highway for ransomware. → RMF
Redundancy must cover the management server and SQL, not just the recording servers. → RMF
Your DR sites are geographically dispersed — across subnets, or separate federated or independent deployments. → RMF
You want to protect selected cameras, licensed per device — entrances, POS, critical infrastructure — not whole recorders. → RMF
You need asymmetric mapping — any camera to any recorder, with different stream profiles per site. → RMF
You want the secondary to retain footage for a different duration than the primary — a leaner DR copy, or a longer archive at one site. → RMF
You want both sites doing work — stream load balancing and stream-level failback. → RMF
Failover must be invisible to PSIM, access control, and analytics — nothing renamed, renumbered, or re-registered. → Tandem
You want zero client-side footprint — server-side failover on the standard Smart Client, no plugin to deploy. → Tandem
You want dead-simple 1:1 recorder HA — two identical machines, one identity, nothing to map or reconcile. → Tandem
+

RMF and Tandem are not either/or

They work at different layers, so they can run together. Deploy Tandem inside a site for recorder-level HA — especially where third-party integrations are dense — and RMF across isolated, dispersed data centers for cybersecure, asymmetric, device-level redundancy that also covers the management server and SQL. Tandem protects the recorder identity; RMF protects the site and the cyber boundary.

Contact Us