IP camera
An IP camera is a camera that encodes its own video and sends it as a stream over a network, usually with its own address, rather than sending an analog signal down a cable to a recorder. Because the stream is standard, any system that speaks the camera's protocol can receive it, including a cloud service.
Most IP cameras from the last decade publish their video over RTSP and describe themselves over ONVIF, which is what makes them interchangeable between recorders and software. Power usually arrives over the same network cable through PoE.
The distinction matters for a cloud move. An IP camera can be connected to a cloud VMS directly, if it is reachable, or through a connector on the local network. An analog camera needs an encoder or a recorder to put it on the network first.
Camzify connects any IP camera that streams RTSP, RTMP or HTTPS, from any brand, without replacing it.