Conventional solutions have fallen short of addressing users’ need to effectively process and store high-volume video data. This is where Quantum's solution can come in to help.
Nowadays, video data is experiencing explosive growth. According to IDC, by 2025 there will be 79.4 zettabytes of data created just by connected IoT devices alone (each zettabyte is equal to 10
21 bytes), and most of it will come from video-based devices. Amid this trend, ensuring that massive amounts of video data can be properly processed and
stored becomes critical. This, along with other topics relevant to video surveillance, were explored in a November 9
webinar held jointly by Quantum and asmag.com.
In his presentation, Israel Gogol, Group Manager of asmag.com, talked about reasons why video data is growing. These include digital transformation, regulation and, most importantly, a change of mindset by businesses.
“A business mindset change has to do with a desire to be data-driven and have fast and actionable data. Value is added by the data we get relative to the stand-alone value of the offering. A video camera that can detect motion or map customer walking paths in the store is more valuable than a camera that just records a video feed,” Gogol said.
In his presentation, Choon-Seng Tan, Senior Director of Engineering at Quantum, discussed how conventional solutions have fallen short of addressing users’ need to effectively process and store high-volume video data. Network video recorders, for example, can be troublesome due to their unreliable retention and performance, single points of failure and the need to use separate servers to run security apps. Even for enterprise storage solutions, they can still be subject to poor video performance and limited scalability; require servers and shared storage; feature expensive, proprietary storage hardware; and require specialized management skills.
According to Tan, this is where users can be assisted with Quantum, especially their smart NVRs and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. The smart NVRs run multiple applications on a single NVR to reduce the number of physical NVRs and servers required, allowing hardware, on-going support and maintenance costs to be significantly reduced.
As for HCI, it has become a popular way of deploying infrastructure in datacenters all over the world. What sets Quantum’s HCI apart from others, according to Tan, is that the former is purpose-built for video with the following advantages: Resiliency, where the solution can withstand multiple server and multiple disk failures and still maintain data integrity; sustained performance, where video is recorded without any dropped frames; high scalability, where expansion or replacement of components can take place without any downtime or disruptions; and lower cost and complexity, which lead to lower total cost of ownership.
Tan further shared other case studies. One is a theme park in Beijing, which is required to have a large number of cameras and a mission-critical solution to avoid any down time. Quantum’s HCI cluster recording solution is deployed, allowing recording of 3,000+ cameras on a 24x7 basis, with recording downtime and data loss eliminated.
Another case study is at a US government agency with two primary facilities with 1,200 cameras each and a one-year retention requirement in place. For this, Quantum’s HCI is deployed at both primary facilities; it records all cameras and runs VMS app, real-time analytics (Agent VI) and forensic analytics (BriefCam). The solution reduced 12 racks of NVR servers to 4 racks of Quantum HCI, and the infrastructure allows for scaling to 2,000 cameras per facility.
“As we mentioned, as more and more retention period is getting mandated by government bodies, and even for business usage going forward, you might need to save the data not just for one month or two months, but you might want to save for one, two years or even longer,” Tan said. “Quantum is known for the whole spectrum of data management, from ingestion to HCI and all the way to archives. We have all the solutions that we call end-to-end data management, for which we have the products to suit your need.”
More important, Quantum’s HCI is software-defined and can be compatible with hardware of the user’s choice. “The nice thing is that, even if you go down the HCI route with Quantum, it doesn't lock you out from some other vendors. It’s not as if our solution is so proprietary that you make a life-long commitment,” said Jim Simon, GM of APJ at Quantum. “Quantum has been around for more than 40 years. We have tens of thousands of customers around the world. Those that have become our customers can tell you how happy they are.”
During the webinar, the topic of
cloud vs. on-prem also came up, with the experts agreeing that both have benefits and drawbacks, and that the decision should be based on the user’s own scenario.
“We think that cloud is starting to play a bigger role in video surveillance. We expect to see more of it showing up in smaller environments. It’s great for even the camera in front of my house; it’s not what I want to use to protect our corporate offices. Its benefits aside, the guaranteed bandwidth, the ability to handle a hundred cameras constantly streaming and not dropping frames, as well as the issue with the ownership of video are still things that need to be worked out,” said Matt Stoller, Area Director for Technical Sales and System Engineering at Quantum.