Affordable Storage Costs of Long-Term Video Surveillance

As the video surveillance marketplace continues to evolve toward technologies that are increasingly IP-based, businesses that in the past may not have considered using a video surveillance system are now doing so. This market expansion is fueling the adoption of higher and higher resolution cameras, increased per site camera usage, and even greater surveillance coverage than before. Technology advancements are creating pressure points on organizations’ I.T. infrastructure.

Historically, analog CCTV systems and VCRs limited typical retention to the well-known “7-day loop.” However, just like other company records and documents, video surveillance is demanding longer and longer retention times, all the while preserving vastly improved video quality.

Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) methodologies have been solving data retention challenges for a long time. The Hollywood film industry, however, learned that ILM systems are unable to provide the overall management they need because these traditional I.T. storage solutions are not “video aware.”

Although highly evolved, ILM and traditional means of searching for typical corporate data simply do not work for the video-centric world of the film industry.

Video Lifecycle Management (VLM) solutions have been designed to deal with the specific challenges of storing, managing, and searching video in a multi-tiered storage environment. Low resolution companion files and thumbnails used for fast searching–regardless of where in the storage hierarchy the video lives–along with lossless storage are key features of well architected VLM systems. Just like the Hollywood film industry, the surveillance market is now embracing Video Lifecycle Management.

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