To set the stage for this discussion, you may want to visit another blog written by Darrell Jordan-Smith (VP of Global Communications and Media Practice at Sun). Specifically, his blog entry addressing network capacity. Darrell discusses the issue of the network not keeping up with the demands users are putting on it for services. This speaks directly to video surveillance and the demand this unstructured, volumous data puts on the IP network.
Video surveillance has benefited from the advances in the processor chip to process and manage data. But ONE of the bottlenecks that occurs in traditional environments is when video surveillance data is transferred to storage. The network hasn't kept up with the processor. Frankly, this is where Sun has brought significant value in technology that the IP video surveillance market benefits from...the Sun Fire x4500 (code name Thumper...soon to be upstaged by Thor...the Sun Fire x4540). The x4500 and x4540 are refered to as data servers. These are servers with a significant amount of onboard storage: 12TB/24TB/48TB. I mention this because these data servers play a huge role in IP video surveillance.
Here are the data points from the x4540 website:
At a Glance
- Dual Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
- 48 integrated SATA disk drives onboard
- Scales from 12TB to 48TB in a 4U rack space
- Highest throughput rates (2.0GB/s from disks to network, 3.0GB/s to memory)
- Twice as compact and half the cost of competing systems
- Incredible prices: $1.20/GB, including server
- Runs Solaris OS, Linux, and Windows operating systems
For those of us who don't speak in terms of 'bits and bytes' on a daily basis, this is a translation to IP video surveillance terms:
- I refer to the Sun Fire x4500 and x4540's as a 'NVR on Steriods'. (With Sun's software partners running their applications on these data servers, they act in a capacity of a NVR: Network Video Recorder.)
- With DVRs/NVRs traditionally coming with 1TB of onboard storage (I have seen some with 8 and 12 TB - but still....) at 12/24/48TB of storage, they have no camparison on the market today. This means a security director can store months of data (versus days or weeks) on a device that allows instant access to the stored data.
- The throughput claims of 2.0GB/s from disks to network, 3.0GB/s to memory play an important role in video surveillance - addressing the 'bottleneck' issue. In the Sun Video Surveillance labs in Colorado, we're actually seeing impressive results in testing with upwards of 120 cameras on these data servers and showing only 20% utilization rate of the box. (Try that with a traditional DVR/NVR...)
- The price should have caught your eye...it is extremely competitive in a market where storage (not to be disrespectful) is an afterthought - but quickly becoming mandatory in some environments.
- The footprint is another interesting consideration. As video surveillance moves to the IP network, it means 'moves to the data center'. Not many data center managers had planned for racks of servers to support video surveillance. Already security personnel are facing that not-so-pleasant discussion with their IT personnel. When you tell IT management they can put 48TBs of storage in a single 4U rack unit to support your video surveillance network, you will get their attention (trust me on this one).
There are other network issues related to bandwidth and sending video data over that network. That's a whole other topic I hope you return to read later. I have been investigating the bandwidth issue and am finding the communication providers (network equipment providers/manufacturers) are all over this topic. I'll show you some examples next time...
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