In today’s market, storage is one of the most important elements in any surveillance system.
That’s according to Fredy Issa, business development manager: Digital Security Industry for EMC Gulf, who says that organisations which invest heavily in CCTV and surveillance solutions shouldn’t skimp on the storage component.
“There is a trend for some companies to invest millions of dollars in CCTV equipment and surveillance solutions to minimise their security risk – but to opt for the best cameras and cheap storage,” Issa says. “As a result, the storage is unreliable, which means that critical images cannot always be retrieved when they are needed.”
Issa believes the focus should be on a reliable storage system, even if it means saving costs on the cameras.
“The emergence of large-scale video surveillance deployments has created a number of challenges, including the creation of a massive amount of content that must be stored, analysed, and managed by security teams with limited resources,” he says.
“Organisations are storing multiple petabytes of data, so a reliable storage solution is of paramount importance.”
The surveillance industry is currently growing at a rate of 20% per annum, and represents $20-billion in sales. Although most installations used analogue equipment prior to 2010, 80% of new surveillance implementations are now based on IP (Internet Protocol) technology. Similarly, there is widespread replacement of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) with external SAN/NAS Video storage.
“These developments have introduced challenges for some members of the industry, particularly now that IP has become an accepted standard,” Issa says. “There is a significant community of analogue system integrators which are being compelled to up-skill to handle the networking and IP requirements of the latest surveillance technology.”
However, the benefits of using IP technology in surveillance systems far outweigh the challenges. These solutions are easy to use and provide quick, simple access to decision-makers. Furthermore, the images can be viewed from any device connected to the network, and it is possible to restrict access to the appropriate people.
The video surveillance solutions provide powerful, scale-out storage and are simple to install, manage and scale to virtually any size, regardless of how the customer’s surveillance needs change in the future.
With scale-out network attached storage (NAS), organisations have scope for their video surveillance data storage needs – more than 15 petabytes of capacity per cluster in a single file system. More cameras can be brought online, and surveillance hours expanded, as needed.
“Whereas it was difficult to scale analogue surveillance systems, the IP-based solutions are able to scale up to massive amounts of storage. In some countries, video surveillance is mandatory to comply with legislative requirements, and the images have to be retained for periods of four to six months,” Issa says.
“In the South African and African markets, video surveillance is emerging and the demand for accompanying storage is growing. There is a high instance of sophisticated solutions being used in areas such as residential estates, casinos, shopping malls and financial institutions. With IP megapixel cameras, images can be stored for up to one year.”
As a storage market leader, EMC has teamed with industry-leading video management software (VMS) and camera vendors to provide consultancy on end-to-end solutions designed to address video surveillance security and data storage needs. The company’s joint solutions are tested and certified at the EMC eLab, which is renowned for conducting rigorous interoperability testing.
“This frees up organisations to focus on video surveillance, not on the technology enabling it,” Issa says. “Our global CCTV team works with the industry’s major players to deepen our understanding of the market and ensure our strategy is aligned with clients’ requirements.
“With EMC video surveillance systems, the objective is 100% uptime. We understand that our customers can’t afford to wait for repairs to be done, and are committed to providing immediate response and onsite assistance whenever necessary.”
