Virtual guard
A virtual guard is a security service in which a site is watched through its cameras from another location, by an operator or by software, instead of by a guard standing on the premises. It covers the routine watching and the round; a person still attends what it raises.
The term is the market's name for what a monitoring company sells: coverage of a site's cameras without a person on site, priced per site or per camera rather than per guard hour. The value is consistency, since the virtual guard checks every camera every time, and cost, since one operator covers many sites.
On Camzify the virtual guard is virtual patrolling: scheduled rounds through the cameras with a checklist per camera, a guard messaged when a check fails, and a report per round. Security agencies and monitoring centers sell it on the cameras their clients already own.
A virtual guard does not replace the response. A door found open still needs someone to close it, and an intruder still needs someone to attend, whether that is a mobile patrol, the site's own staff or the police.