When it comes to storage, end users have different needs and objectives based on the vertical market they are in. Understanding those needs and providing the correct solutions to suit those needs have therefore become key for systems integrators.
For systems integrators, one of the keys to winning projects and getting customer trust is to understand the storage needs of those customers, who have different requirements or objectives based on the vertical markets they are in. A whitepaper released by Quantum listed some of the storage requirements for different markets.
City surveillance
One of the biggest challenges in city surveillance and law enforcement is the prevalence of video data, generated by thousands of cameras installed on street corners, buildings, ports, jail intake areas and interview rooms, not to mention body cameras worn by police officers. Against this backdrop, an effective storage solution is needed to offer immediate and direct access to video, allowing police officers to quickly gather evidence for present and past cases as well as help simplify the management process of their video.
Retail
For retailers, the role of video has changed from securing assets and people to providing business intelligence and customer analysis. The data generated by cameras again calls for effective storage solutions. “This analytic integration into other key retail use cases is leading to an accumulation of data, and having intelligent storage will help integrate data from multiple sources into one comprehensive infrastructure,” the paper said.
Transportation
Similar to the above sectors, transportation operators also see cameras generating a huge amount of video. “Data that’s focused on transportation is complex because of the sheer number of cameras capturing video in constant motion. Transportation hubs need a high-performance storage solution that’s able to handle full-res video streams integrated with real-time analytics going at 100 percent. A storage solution that can meet these requirements enables IT and security managers to easily leverage data to move from insight to action,” the whitepaper said.
Education
Given rampant campus violence these days, video surveillance has become more important than ever. A storage solution that ensures rapid access to video is critical in an emergency situation. “A common problem within the security and surveillance departments of educational institutions is the campus-wide consolidation of video. Whether video is coming from fixed cameras monitoring perimeters and building entrances, or campus police wearing on-body cameras, it’s crucial to have video storage you can depend on,” the paper said.
SI professionalism counts
Darren Taylor,
Managing Director,
PMT Security Systems
Jeffery Lee, GM, 3S
Against this backdrop, SIs who have the necessary knowledge in storage play a crucial role in meeting the users’ needs. “Every storage vendor touts expertise in video storage capability, but when in scale and performance centric environments all storage is not equal – the challenge for customers is to find a professional SI who understands how to map the correct storage solution to each customers’ individual needs,” said Darren Taylor, Managing Director at
PMT Security Systems.
In large-scale projects, for example, there are several factors that can impact the effectiveness of storage. The network infrastructure must be set up properly, supported with carefully designed access, convergence and core layers as well as high-grade cabling, to ensure the reliability of transmission from edge devices to storage. The system integrator, then, must be equipped with this knowledge to design and implement a project that fits the user’s needs and budget. “Selecting the right storage solution is not a matter of the SI’s own preference,” said Jeffery Lee, GM of
3S. “Rather, it is dependent upon the physical structure of the end user organization, the type and size of the project itself and what the user’s needs and objectives are.”
For small and medium businesses, one of their top concerns is whether to invest in their own storage or to store everything in the cloud. While the as-a-service model that charges a monthly fee removes the need for onsite equipment purchases, it is not necessarily the more cost-effective solution, and the SI needs to explain the pros and cons to the user.
“We tend to see that in Australia the upfront cost model is still the preferred method of choice. This is due to the cost of the bandwidth to the sites. Unfortunately, we have not got large up and down speeds here in Australia and the cost to be able to get it make you VSaaS model extremely expensive when you head to the multiple HD camera systems,” Taylor said.