Page 50 - Security Today, February 2018

more data-intensive, organizations are beginning to look to scalable, tiered-storage strategies that can adapt to the changing surveillance storage landscape.
As the average camera resolution continues to rise, so does the storage behind the camera. HD-compliant 1080p 25/30 fps cameras have established themselves as the minimum expected quality re- quired from new cameras. Panoramic and 4K cameras are two addi- tional storage-hungry, high-growth categories gaining traction within the market. Analytics and more efficient compression technologies will reduce some storage requirements. However, these technologies are not going to offset the upsurge of data being generated by higher specification cameras, which are capturing much more information than ever before, as well as the increased video retention periods fac- ing many cities, states and local governments.
With these analytics adding value to surveillance footage beyond simple safety, the value of video content will increase the length of time it is stored. As these requirements continue to drive data growth, it is becoming paramount to have an intentional, proactive strategy for storing surveillance footage long-term.
Video Content is Only Growing
Increased retention regulations, paired with higher resolution camer- as and the introduction of body-worn cameras, will likely be a wake- up call to the video surveillance industry to reevaluate its approach to storage design. The introduction of body-worn cameras is forecast to skyrocket as well in the coming years.2 Specifically, in the United States, tens of thousands of new body-worn cameras will enter the market with the assistance of new federal funding. All of these body- worn cameras require their footage to be retained for long periods of time – often years. Although the unit shipments of body-worn cameras are minute compared with those of traditional fixed video surveillance cameras, several parallels can be drawn between the stor- age headaches faced by both markets.
Many end-users tasked with maintaining body-worn cameras (typically law enforcement officers), have limited background in IT. It’s valuable for them to have an integrated system, designed with total cost of ownership in mind, that accounts for both upfront costs and maintenance costs, and is capable of accommodating changing retention rates.
Though the likelihood of reviewing video footage decreases over time, this footage should still remain accessible, whether desired or required. Increasing retention can provide anti-litigation, insurance and operational assistance. In addition, an efficient storage infra- structure can enable the use of post-recording analytics.
2018 Predictions
In 2018, we can expect to see significant changes in the video surveil- lance storage market, as the amount of video content required to be preserved increases. Many of the storage challenges the video surveil- lance will likely face in 2018 have been addressed successfully in other markets, such as the broadcast industry, where extreme amounts of data are generated but cannot be deleted. There are a few strategies facing these issues.
Increased use of multiple storage tiers. The use of storage tiers for video surveillance footage previously referred to a separate archive or directly attaching additional capacity to recorder appliances. Now we’re seeing a multitude of options designed specifically for video surveillance, which all pull together different storage tiers – in some cases storage media – into a single architecture. This allows more ef- ficiency in varying how recorded footage is treated throughout its life- time. In some cases, data is moved from edge to centralized storage, and occasionally into the cloud.
Additional partnerships between video surveillance suppliers and storage specialists. As storage demands increase, some video vendors are turning to traditional storage vendors to provide systems that
can handle high capacities of high-resolution video files and provide storage solutions that can scale to the extent that organizations now require. In terms of video management software, this means the inte- gration of data from different storage types, tiers and physical loca- tions is required, while understanding the performance levels of each. Many of the major Video Management Systems have built-in tiering functionality, allowing organizations to easily implement a true tiered storage strategy.
Video surveillance vendors increase enterprise storage offerings.
Storage commonly accounts for the majority of the equipment cost for higher-channel-count systems. Large capacity storage tends to be expensive to procure and costly to implement — especially without a sound architecture that balances storage requirements and the speed of access needed to recall video footage. Many times, this will result in a multi-vendor solution that brings the best in breed companies together to deliver a fully integrated, turn-key solution.
Camera and storage vendors have extremely competitive offer- ings. Storage for video surveillance has been behind cameras on their product development roadmap, but as more and more cameras have come to market, less attention has been put on the storage and the available capacity. This year we’ll see more enterprise storage prod- ucts for video surveillance available from new vendors trying to pen- etrate the market. It is important to find vendors who are established in their part of the solution and know that the vendors chosen will be there providing support and feature enhancements for the foresee- able future.
Tomorrow’s Challenges
The video surveillance industry has advanced light-years from the days of the video cassette recorder; however, its implementation of enterprise storage may be forced to evolve further to meet the needs of changing storage retention requirements and new camera technol- ogies. Video storage is quickly becoming one of the most expensive parts of a surveillance implementation, but there is hope.
To meet tomorrow’s challenges and outpace storage budgets, com- panies will implement solutions that enable users to implement a tiered storage strategy: solutions that are tightly integrated with industry- leading video management systems partners that can grow with one’s organization and video data sets over time.
Eric Polet is the emerging markets program man- ager at Spectra Logic Corp.
References
1 IHS Technology - https://technology.ihs.com/ api/binary/572252
2 Forecast units Shipped of Body-Worn Cameras - https://www.statis- ta.com/statistics/509159/body-worn-cameras-worldwide-shipments/
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