A load balancing method, wherein the load balancing method is applied to a video surveillance system, and the video surveillance system comprises multiple devices; and the method comprises: when a first device in the video surveillance system detects that a difference between a space occupation ratio of the first device and a space occupation ratio of a second device is greater than a preset space occupation ratio difference threshold, obtaining, by the first device, first status information of the first device and first status information of the second device, wherein the first status information comprises: at least one of a memory occupation rate, a central processing unit CPU occupation rate, or an input/output I/O occupation rate and wherein there are multiple second devices; when neither a value corresponding to the first status information of the first device nor a value corresponding to the first status information of the second device is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining, by the first device, second status information of the first device and second status information of the second device, wherein the second status information of a device comprises at least one of a channel quantity Cn, a bit rate Br, or a storage day Sd of an Internet Protocol camera, IPC, connected to the device; calculating, by the first device, a space occupation ratio of the first device according to the second status information of the first device and a space occupation ratio of the second device according to the second status information of the second device; wherein the space occupation ratio of a device is represented by Rt, wherein Rt = ∑ i = 1 n D i / Da and D i = ∑ j = 1 Cn Br j ∗ Sd j, wherein Da is total storage space of the device, D i is expected storage space of the IPC connected to the device, and n indicates a total quantity of IPCs connected to the device, i = 1,..., n; n is a positive integer; and j indicates a channel number; determining, by the first device, a first region according to regional positions of the first device and the second device; sequencing space occupation ratios of devices in the first region; determining, by the first device, a first target device and a second target device according to a result of sequencing the space occupation ratios of the devices in the first region; and scheduling, by the first device, to the second target device, at least one target IPC connected to the first target device. when a first device in the video surveillance system detects that a difference between a space occupation ratio of the first device and a space occupation ratio of a second device is greater than a preset space occupation ratio difference threshold, obtaining, by the first device, first status information of the first device and first status information of the second device, wherein the first status information comprises: at least one of a memory occupation rate, a central processing unit CPU occupation rate, or an input/output I/O occupation rate and wherein there are multiple second devices; when neither a value corresponding to the first status information of the first device nor a value corresponding to the first status information of the second device is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining, by the first device, second status information of the first device and second status information of the second device, wherein the second status information of a device comprises at least one of a channel quantity Cn, a bit rate Br, or a storage day Sd of an Internet Protocol camera, IPC, connected to the device; calculating, by the first device, a space occupation ratio of the first device according to the second status information of the first device and a space occupation ratio of the second device according to the second status information of the second device; wherein the space occupation ratio of a device is represented by Rt, wherein Rt = ∑ i = 1 n D i / Da and D i = ∑ j = 1 Cn Br j ∗ Sd j, wherein Da is total storage space of the device, D i is expected storage space of the IPC connected to the device, and n indicates a total quantity of IPCs connected to the device, i = 1,..., n; n is a positive integer; and j indicates a channel number; determining, by the first device, a first region according to regional positions of the first device and the second device; sequencing space occupation ratios of devices in the first region; determining, by the first device, a first target device and a second target device according to a result of sequencing the space occupation ratios of the devices in the first region; and scheduling, by the first device, to the second target device, at least one target IPC connected to the first target device.