The acronym MVaaS is meant to be a play off SaaS, where software is hosted and used via the Web. When we coined the term MVaaS we wanted to convey that the video surveillance system is operated by a managed services provider.
A good comparison is a managed telecommunications provider operates corporate networks on behalf of their customers, with customer premise equipment as well as a hosted components like websites, email services and of course, the network backbone.
In addition to the network infrastructure, telecom providers also provide value added services like web hosting, and Voice over IP. MVaaS is a lot like outsourcing your telephone system. You could run your own telephone system in house, buy all the equipment and maintain it, or you can hire a company to do it for you, all the way from the phones on your desk to voicemail and so on.
MVaaS brings this same kind of managed service to Network Video systems.
There’s a “living” definition for MVaaS at wikipedia that you might check out.