What a Complete UniFi Security Setup Looks Like for an SMB
When a business owner asks us to “add some cameras and maybe a key card system,” what they’re really asking for is a layered physical security infrastructure. Done right, it protects your people, your assets, and your data. Done wrong, it’s a collection of devices that don’t talk to each other and fail when you need them most.
At IntegriTel, we standardize on the Ubiquiti UniFi ecosystem for physical security deployments. Here’s exactly what a complete SMB security setup looks like — hardware, placement, configuration, and why each piece matters.
Why UniFi?
UniFi isn’t the cheapest option, and it’s not the most enterprise-grade either. It sits in a sweet spot that makes it ideal for businesses with 5–150 employees: professional-grade hardware, a unified management interface, and a price point that doesn’t require a six-figure budget.
Everything — cameras, access readers, network switches, Wi-Fi — is managed from a single UniFi console. That means one login, one dashboard, and one vendor relationship when something needs attention.
Layer 1: Exterior Perimeter Cameras
The first line of defense is visibility around the perimeter of your building. For a typical 5,000–10,000 sq ft commercial space, we deploy 4–8 UniFi G4 or G5 cameras covering:
- All exterior entry and exit points (front door, rear door, loading dock)
- Parking lot coverage with wide-angle views
- Dumpster and utility areas (common targets for after-hours intrusion)
- Any exterior ATM, cash handling, or high-value equipment areas
We position cameras at 8–10 feet of height to capture facial-recognition-quality footage while staying out of easy reach. Every exterior camera is hardwired via PoE — no Wi-Fi cameras outdoors, ever. Wireless cameras introduce latency, drop frames during recording, and are trivially defeated by jamming.
Layer 2: Interior Cameras at Critical Zones
Interior cameras serve a different purpose than exterior ones — less about deterrence, more about accountability and incident review. We focus interior coverage on:
- Reception and lobby (who came in, who they met with)
- Server room entrance (always, without exception)
- Cash handling areas and safes
- Stockrooms and inventory areas
- Elevator lobbies in multi-tenant buildings
For server rooms specifically, we install a UniFi G4 Dome at the door pointing directly at the rack. If someone accesses your servers — authorized or not — you have timestamped, high-definition footage of exactly who it was and what they did.
Layer 3: Access Control Readers
UniFi Access replaces physical keys with NFC card readers and mobile credentials. For a typical SMB deployment, we install readers at:
- Main building entry (exterior-rated reader)
- Server room door
- Any offices with sensitive information (HR, finance, legal)
- Equipment storage or inventory rooms
Each reader ties into the UniFi Access Hub, which connects to your network switch. Access permissions are managed per-employee in the console — grant access, revoke access, or pull a complete access log for any door at any time.
When an employee leaves, you revoke their credentials in the dashboard. No rekeying. No hoping they turned in their keys. No wondering if they made a copy.
Layer 4: On-Site NVR Storage
All camera footage records locally to a UniFi Network Video Recorder (UNVR). We configure a minimum of 30 days of continuous recording for all cameras, with motion-triggered clips retained longer.
Why local storage instead of cloud? Three reasons: cost (cloud video storage for 8+ cameras gets expensive fast), reliability (footage records even if your internet goes down), and control (your footage stays on your hardware, not a third-party server).
The UNVR sits in your server rack, on a dedicated VLAN, accessible only to authorized personnel. We configure automated alerts for disk health and camera offline events so you’re never surprised by a gap in coverage.
What the Full Deployment Costs
A complete UniFi security deployment for a typical 25-person SMB — 6 exterior cameras, 4 interior cameras, 3 access control readers, UNVR, and all cabling — typically runs $8,000–$14,000 installed, depending on the complexity of the building and existing network infrastructure.
That’s a one-time capital expense with no ongoing per-camera licensing fees. Compare that to cloud-based security platforms that charge $10–30 per camera per month — on a 10-camera system, you’ve paid for the UniFi hardware in under two years.
Ready to Get a Security Assessment?
Every building is different. IntegriTel offers free on-site security assessments for businesses in the St. Louis region — we’ll walk your space, identify gaps, and give you a hardware plan and quote at no cost.