Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Selects Pivot3 Platform for Video Surveillance Storage

Pivot3, a provider to consolidate servers and storage in a scale-out application platform, has been deployed as the combined server/storage platform for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) video surveillance implementation, which aims to reduce violent behavior, catch repeat offenders and increase security in designated hotspots.

The HCSO chose the Pivot3 to both store captured video images and host the VMS software. The nature of the Pivot3 solution ensures that the performance and capacity of the system can handle the demands of incoming video streams and offer investment protection over time as the deployment grows.

“The Sheriff's Office feels video surveillance is an investigative tool as well as a visible deterrent,” said Craig McEntyre, Manager, Business Support Bureau, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Information Services Division. “The county chose Pivot3 because it is more efficient than traditional storage solutions. HCSO needs to capture critical surveillance data at all times and Pivot3 provides application failover to prevent the loss of captured video. Furthermore, the fact that server applications share storage hardware resources reduces our overall power and cooling costs, which makes the platform very cost effective.”

The camera project, dubbed “Eye On Crime,” allows deputies to keep an eye on trouble spots, monitor streets for emergency situations and provide residents with an increased feeling of safety. SiteSecure, a leading systems integration firm based in Sanford, Florida, was tapped along with Avrio RMS, a surveillance integrator with municipal surveillance expertise, to develop a wireless surveillance system that funneled video data back to district headquarters without requiring expensive cabling. The installation includes 20 Avrio cameras. A Firetide wireless mesh network provides street-level communication and Motorola backhaul links connect the local system back to headquarters. Incoming video streams are managed by VMS from Genetec while Pivot3 surveillance provides a flexible storage and server platform.

The Pivot3 CloudBanks reduces cost by consolidating server and shared storage functionality in a common appliance. Pivot3 appliances deliver both server and shared storage resources in one appliance and provide application failover that protects both storage and VMS applications in the event of a failure. The hosting servers in a SAN eliminates the need for standalone physical servers resulting in 40-percent reductions in power, cooling, rack space and cost.

“The amount of storage capacity required by video is a major budget item in a surveillance installation since cameras can generate 1 TB of data in one day,” said Lee Caswell, founder and CMO, Pivot3. “A system such as Pivot3 allows customers like the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office the flexibility to start with as much or as little storage, and then add capacity and performance simply by non-disruptively adding appliances.”