Video surveillance infrastructure has historically been deployed and managed by security specialists, using analog cameras connected via coaxial cable to banks of VCRs or servers with encoder cards. However, the popularity of low-cost digital cameras, receiving power and streaming video through conventional shared TCP/IP Ethernet networks, has in fact made Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) camera deployment far easier and more cost-effective in recent times. This, in effect, led to a need for an easier video capture, storage aggregation and intelligent analytics applications (on ever more powerful workstations), as well as a system integrator, with expertise in IP and software technology, who can bridge the analog and digital worlds.
Surveillance use cases vary widely from less than 16 camera environments to thousands of camera systems with very extensive infrastructure requirements. So video surveillance at scale, with multiple building blocks including the video IT infrastructure, cameras, servers, storage and networking, can be a complex system. Such deployments also require multi-Petabyte levels of storage with unique performance requirements for a 24X7, high-throughput recording and analytics processing to meet the capacity and economic workflow needs of a business. In addition, the increase in higher than HD camera resolutions is driving up data rates per camera, creating a need for an enhanced solution bandwidth and storage capacity. Hence, the surveillance industry is in a constant state of evolution due to the emerging technologies and requirements.
At Dell, we are continuously innovating to adapt our technologies to the new customer requirements and industry standards. Our Video IT solutions leverage our strong end-to-end presence across servers, workstations, storage, networking, software and services, enabling us to develop robust Video IT solutions for our customers. In addition, our portfolio is complemented by solutions investments such as certification, sizing, and integration work with VMS partners Milestone, Bosch and Genetec, to ensure we’re prescribing the right products, configurations, and best-practices for any CCTV environment.
For the media and entertainment industry, our NAS and SAN solutions are energizing workflows from animation render farms to sports news broadcasting and production editing environments. Our solutions have been validated and tested at scale for multiple types of video applications. In fact, new generations of Dell kits are already being used in Video IT solutions by multiple customers, so if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of thousands of HD cameras transmitting around you…
Visit http://www.dell.com/videosolutions or @Dell_Storage on Twitter to share your use-cases and storage needs.