Security Sales & Integration January 2023 - 22

VIDEO
IMAGING RECORDING MANAGEMENT
Modernizing Your Client's Infrastructure
by Eric Bassier
▶ High resolution cameras are producing
better and clearer video surveillance data.
Because of this, and growing compliance
requirements, businesses have more reasons
to retain and fi nd value in that data
for the long-term.
Th is sets up a challenge. Th ere are
more cameras out there than ever before,
and they're a higher resolution, meaning
they produce much more data. In addition
to this, compliance and business requirements
are driving a need for longer
retention times.
Th ere are a couple of diff erent kinds of
analytics at play here - real-time and forensic.
Real-time analytics are something
clients are already familiar with; the kind
that we picture in our heads when we think
of surveillance. Th is is the security offi cer
sitting in a security operations center watching
surveillance footage to keep an eye out
for dangerous actors or a security breach.
However, businesses are relying more
and more on " forensic " analytics, which
is analysis of collected video data to improve
things like performance, effi ciency
and to inform business decisions.
Th is is one of the reasons retention
times are increasing - customers want
to retain data for longer to utilize forensic
analytics and maximize business value
from that data. Because of this, managing
video surveillance data across its lifecycle
has become much more complex, and the
legacy solutions for clients to store their
data are unsustainable and costly in today's
climate of massive data growth.
The Current Approach
Many clients continue the legacy approach
of adding more dedicated servers to keep up
with their growing data storage needs and
to support multiple applications. But adding
servers, especially at a rapidly increasing
rate to support data growth and new physical
security applications, increases complexity
and the risk of frame and footage loss.
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With more cameras out there than ever, and at a higher resolution,
much more data is being produced. That can strain storage infrastructure.
Risks could include a crashed or totally
lost server from both natural and
manmade disasters, or data being stored
in only one physical location with a legacy
solution, like a standard NVR, when
a server is compromised, the result is a
complete loss of data.
Beyond these tangible risk factors, the
legacy approach also requires more manpower
to manage and the physical space to
house the growing number of servers, the
correlating costs with purchasing and supporting
more hardware is unsustainable.
One of the biggest considerations you
should have is if your clients are using a
modern video surveillance infrastructure.
And if not, what will their transition look
like? For many organizations, the transition
from multiple physical servers or NVRs to
a modern, unifi ed server and storage software
solution sounds complex, but it's very
simple to manage and scale as needed.
A unifi ed solution is highly resilient, retains
data even if hardware fails, can scale
easily and has the added advantage of being
able to run multiple physical security applications
on one common infrastructure instead
of needing multiple servers to do so.
Making the Transition
In making considerations for a more modern
video surveillance infrastructure, data
retention should be top of mind. Because
of this, if your clients are using racks and
Security Sales & Integration JANUARY 2023
racks of individual standard NVRs to record
and store data, it may be time to consider
a new approach.
With the advent of forensic analytics,
losing data when an NVR goes down
doesn't just mean losing footage. It can
mean losing crucial understanding of business
intelligence.
With all those risks and benefi ts in mind,
we can turn to how a modern infrastructure
is not actually complex or diffi cult to set up
and deploy. Today's unifi ed infrastructure
solutions are purpose-built for video and
are created to be easy to deploy and scale.
It's important to begin by working
around the sunken cost fallacy and the
idea that your client may have that if
they have already come this far, they
might as well keep going.
Th e reality is that when you compare
the costs of continuing the legacy
approach indefi nitely with the cost of
switching to a modern infrastructure
- in addition to the risk and resulting
cost of losing critical video data when
an NVR fails - the cost of the switch
makes more sense in the long run. With a
unifi ed software-based server and storage
infrastructure, the data is retained, and
the system continues to operate, even in
the event of a failure.
ERIC BASSIER is Senior Director of
Products, Quantum.
securitysales.com
ONLY4DENN/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration January 2023

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