www.sdmmag.com/articles/94822-state-of-the-market-video-surveillance-2018
State of the Market - Video Surveillance - SDM Magazine
Tony Varco, vice president of the security division for Convergint Technologies, Schaumburg, Ill., expects Convergint to be well into double-digit growth again this year. He says the nature of the industry drivers are a major reason the industry won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

State of the Market: Video Surveillance 2018

The video surveillance market is still strong, and replete with opportunity

February 1, 2018

The overwhelming consensus among security professionals interviewed for this first in SDM’s 2018 series of State of the Market articles, is that the video surveillance market remains strong and will continue to grow. Several factors driving that growth are a greater number of applications for video, or increased integration, and several technologies that are starting to become more mainstream, such as analytics, big data, and others.

“It’s been a terrific industry,” says Tony Varco, vice president of the security division for Convergint Technologies, Schaumburg, Ill., “and I don’t see this slowing down anytime soon. The industry is incredibly healthy right now.”

Meng Chhun, marketing manager, VIVOTEK USA, San Jose, Calif., agrees: “2017 was a great year for VIVOTEK, and we will carry this momentum into 2018 with great excitement.”

Yet while there is plenty of cause for optimism and confidence, growth may have slowed slightly this year, due in part to dropping camera prices, saturation and a leveling off of the transition from analog to IP technologies.

 

Market Drivers

One thing that always drives a market is compliance, specifically when end users are up against requirements. “We have seen a lot of traction there and in those particular verticals because of the compliance requirements,” Varco says. He says many compliance drivers exist in verticals such as utilities and healthcare.

Varco says that while the Trump Administration seems to be relaxing many business regulations, security is one thing it is not compromising. “We see it as more of a continuation of the last administration as we look certainly in this year and well into the future.”

The new president and political issues did have an impact on capital spending, though, says Sean Murphy, director of regional marketing – video systems, Bosch Security Systems, Fairport, N.Y. “Also, in several vertical markets, there was a pause in spending, which caused pent-up demand followed by a surge of demand.”

Another driver in the video surveillance market is technological advancements and the interconnectivity of different technologies that never used to cross paths with each other. Varco says it is the ability to leverage sensors and devices on the Internet of Things to provide customers with some actionable intelligence that is really driving the market. Andrew Elvish, vice president of marketing product management, Genetec, Montreal, says, “I think people are getting fed up with maintaining disparate systems across video, access control, license plate recognition, building automation — especially video and access control, because so many features are common between the two. Especially in the large-scale enterprise space, we saw demand growing in the unified sector of our business.”

Ongoing threats, whether they be crime, terrorism or cyber security (for more about the state of cyber security in the security market, read “All Aboard the Cyber Train” on page 49) represent a third driver. “Every unfortunate event we hear about, whether it’s cyber-related or just flat out terrorism, these are drivers for our business. It’s unfortunate that they are and that they happen, but they do drive this industry and this market.”

There is an acute awareness for the need for better security and perimeter protection, agrees John Distelzweig, vice president and general manager of the security segment, FLIR, Beaverton, Ore.

“For this reason, we anticipate 2018 to be another year of growth and new business opportunities for FLIR and our intrusion detection technologies.”

Elvish adds, “Cyber security was on a lot of people’s minds this year. I think we saw evidence that physical security systems are an excellent, and in many ways, an unprotected vector for attacks. So I think they were thinking safety within companies that put a higher premium on things like cyber security and features that would help them manage their complex systems better.”

But are we close to a saturation point with video surveillance? “We are nowhere near the saturation point with video surveillance,” says Ken Francis, president, Eagle Eye Networks, Austin, Texas. “The growth and the sheer availability of the Internet is making it easier and easier for people to add video surveillance anywhere they want it and manage it as part of a bigger system. I don’t see a saturation point on the short- or midterm horizon.”

 

What's Hot

In terms of what end users are asking for, as it relates to bidding, Varco says, higher megapixels and multi-sensor technology in cameras are in highest demand. Another popular technology is thermal cameras. “We’ve seen a significant reduction in cost of thermal cameras over the last three years that’s allowing customers to invest now in thermal cameras, which gives them a whole other view of their world, especially in low-light or night conditions,” he describes.

Fredrik Nilsson, vice president Americas, Axis Communications, Chelmsford, Mass., says it is these technologies — improving resolution, better low-light capabilities, and multi-sensor cameras — that are still leading the charge. “We shouldn’t forget that general trend of improving technologies that we think, ‘Well, haven’t we talked about that for the last 10 years?’ Yes we have, but that’s what is driving the market,” he says.

Nilsson says multi-sensor cameras are a big driver in the market and have been selling a lot more in the past two years. “We’ve had some offerings this year that we almost couldn’t ship enough because this became very popular very quickly, and also fisheye technology, which again is nothing really new,” Nilsson says; “it’s now really getting to the spot where a lot of customers really want it, and that’s been a great growth market for us and other companies over the last year as well.”

Analytics is another big technology driver. “We’re finding customers are very desirous of analytic technology and specifically analytics that are more to germane to their particular business or their vertical,” Varco says. “So it’s no longer just a trip wire if somebody walks from this way to that way kind of thing, but it’s more analytics that are specific to, let’s say, a utility industry or a police department within a municipality — they’re looking for very specific things, and so more and more analytics are being developed to address specific vertical market needs.”

Analytics has become the latest buzzword in the industry, says Hank Monaco, vice president – marketing, building solutions North America, Johnson Controls, Milwaukee. “For those of us who have been in the industry for a while, these buzzwords become something that everyone rallies around for a period of time and then moves on, but it’s really the insights that we can derive and then the ways we can help the customer either save money or increase performance of their systems that really comes into play there.”

He adds, “We have examples on the retail side of our business where applying analytics has helped folks in merchandising and performance or inventory stocking. We think there is a really big opportunity for us to do more of that over time. Those things will also bring us as an integrator up to a different level with our customers in a partnership standpoint because we have an opportunity to reach out and talk to a number of folks at the customer level that we as a security provider may not have historically had the chance to talk [to].”

Deep learning analytics is now replacing traditional video analytics in applications like face and license plate recognition, says Alex Johnson, senior director, analytics and strategy, Verint Systems, Huntington, N.Y. “We expect to see this technology solve unique industry problems that are not currently possible with existing systems. The continued evolution to more cloud-based solutions will allow customers to choose whatever architecture best suits their needs, whether it be a fully on-premise solution, fully cloud-enabled solution, or a hybrid architecture.”

Jake Parker, director of government relations, Security Industry Association, says body-worn cameras are an area to keep an eye on. “So far so good from what I hear from our members who are involved in that,” he says. “The adoption really seems to be picking up in law enforcement agencies. It seems like something that is really going to eventually be literally everywhere. The barriers to implementation there have been mainly on the use-policy side of things — when they’re required to use them, who can access the information, and how much of it is stored and how long, which has taken a few years to get straightened out. It varies based on local politics.”

Jennifer Hackenburg, senior product marketing manager, Dahua Technology USA, Irvine, Calif., says end users are asking about solutions that mitigate risk and create efficiencies across the enterprise. “Specifically, end users are expressing interest in 4K HDCVI Technology, ePoE Technology, PTZ cameras, and multi-sensor cameras, all of which can be applied to create video surveillance systems that deliver excellent cost efficiency and performance that exceed conventional surveillance solutions.” In addition, she says, end users continue to be interested in compression technologies.

 

Industry Challenges

One challenge in the industry is being able to offer customers more with less. “If I’m spending money on a VMS system and cameras and IP systems,” Elvish says, “what more can I do with that? What data insights can come from that, and what can we do with that data? That’s where the savvy integrators out there will see this as an opportunity to consult and then expand their practice so that they have that ability to go in and talk about intelligence operation and security, and about how to bring things such as software as a service to the table so the customers can really have a very flexible system that they can add to as they need.”

He adds, “The challenge comes back to a sort of inertia in the industry. The challenge for the integrator will be to stop thinking like integrators in 2005. Customers out there are very savvy; their expectations are tuned by companies like Salesforce.com, by Microsoft, Apple — so they’re coming to the table with a lot of expectations, and if what they get is some sort of basic, C-grade software with [cheap] cameras, I don’t get the sense [the integrators] are going to be around for very long.”

Monaco is seeing this trend with customers. “The more sophisticated uses that we’re seeing our customers apply have to do with integrating video with things like point-of-sale, integrating video with other practices that they might have to drive different behaviors in their operations, in addition to the standard applications we see from a security standpoint.”

Something else to consider, Nilsson says, is preference not necessarily for “Made in the U.S.A., but for what jobs can be provided to the economy, and will there be a mandate for more value addition being done in the U.S. instead of products being manufactured overseas. “Have we seen any yet? No,” he says, “but there have been discussions and we have investigated what we need to do — absolutely.”

Another challenge may be to replace the shift to IP which is almost complete. By now, nearly everyone who is going to change over to IP cameras has, but that doesn’t mean the opportunities aren’t there to continue capitalizing on IP. Getting into other areas such as IP-based intercom, IP-based audio, IP-based radar detection, Nilsson says, “not only provides new market opportunities for the integrators and better solutions for end customers, but also augments video solutions to make that a lot more useful for the end customers, which is again, what we’re interested in doing — making their life easier and safer and smarter.”

Murphy agrees: “Growth in 2018 is still likely to be centered on IP solutions that are able to seamlessly integrate with other systems and that are targeting specific issues for vertical markets. These are the beginning steps into IoT.”

Another major challenge is the dropping camera prices, which are having real effects on security integrators. “We believe over the last two years or so we’ve moved quite a bit of inventory, but it didn’t translate like it did in years prior because of constant price dropping,” Monaco says. “Hopefully we’ve hit bottom and we’ll be able to predict a little better.”

Falling prices are forcing the industry to adjust, but they certainly don’t spell certain doom. “While price pressure from Chinese manufacturers remained a challenge,” says Distelzweig, “it led to greater innovation from premium, U.S. security companies and the introduction of new, competitively priced solutions. As a result, state-of-the-art video monitoring, detection and verification technology became more available to the small and medium enterprise markets.”

The cyber security challenge has also driven some back to more trusted brands, says Brandon Reich, surveillance business leader, Pivot3, Austin, Texas. “Data security has become the No. 1 concern in the industry, widely because users are moving back to more trusted brands that focus on implementing cyber security protocols into network devices. In the coming year, cybersecurity has to be a primary focus for all product vendors, integrators and end users. The adoption of standards and guidelines around data security for physical security technology will be imperative to ensuring data integrity.”

A disparity in the way industry standards have been interpreted and applied has been a challenge in the industry, though. “Up to this point the standards have not really been the standards; they’ve always been some twist or variation,” says Tony Mucci, director of product management and engineering, building solutions North America, Johnson Controls, Milwaukee. “Hopefully there will be more of an emphasis internally — we’re trying to influence that. We’re trying to participate in the associations and the groups and committees that try to develop these standards so that we can rely on them more. Right now they are not very reliable.”

A challenge that could provide an opportunity as well is the efforts by some of the skeptics of facial recognition technology that are trying to limit how that can be used, Parker says. “That’s an opportunity for the industry to address misconceptions about how that technology works, which obviously depends on video surveillance technology in many cases.”

Where policy is at now actually enables facial recognition to be used more widely for public safety purposes and other purposes, Parker says. “So I think there is a need for the industry to clarify some misconceptions out there about how that works, and there’s a potential challenge there if those that are seeking to limit its use are successful in convincing policymakers to put legislative or regulatory limits on it.”

 

Looking Ahead

While megapixel technology is still a leading driver in the video surveillance industry, Varco says that when it gets to 4K, he believes that is hitting a high point in terms of resolution. “Somebody literally said to me the other day about 4K, ‘It is better than real life.’ How much better do we need it?”

Varco says the focus will begin to shift to compression and the challenge of keeping pace with transmission and storage of these larger files. “H.265 is going to be significantly more important this coming year and over the next couple of years because the pipe is just not big enough, and their network is not robust enough to be able to handle [all the megapixel cameras].”

In the near future, video must be looked at as an added utility to the entire security portfolio — as kind of a force multiplier, or leveraging the number of things that video can do, says Joe Gittens, director of standards, Security Industry Association (SIA).

You have video in the processing of all these images, and that’s enabling a lot of the identification/verification solutions, the biometrics, to work,” Gittens says. “So if you imagine an all-in-one video surveillance and access control system that harnesses the power of high-resolution video to perform recognition or badge identification, and that doubles the utility of video surveillance systems — you have a video surveillance system that acts as your access control system. It might not be an opportunity within the next year or so, but that’s where you can see these things going.”

As far as what’s going to continue to drive the market in 2018 short term, Miguel Lazatin, product and channel marketing director, Hanwha Techwin America, Ridgefield Park, N.J., says there’s been a lot of talk about AI and deep learning. “I don’t know if 2018 is actually going to be a year when we see this take off; I think there are a lot of things that need to be resolved still with deep learning: reliability, accuracy, which maybe isn’t there yet. I think a lot of manufacturers are looking at that and ways to improve it, and there is not a situation where 90 percent reliability or accuracy is going to suffice; it’s got to be very accurate.

“So I think a lot of companies including us are working toward that and trying to figure out how best to increase the accuracy of object classification, object recognition,” Lazatin adds.

Stuart Rawling, director of business development, Pelco by Schneider Electric, Fresno, Calif., says smarter video across many sectors will drive growth. “The education, retail, gaming, ports and transportation, healthcare, oil and gas, and government markets will continue to look for more advanced security solutions designed to help reduce risks and liabilities and in many instances maintain compliance,” he says. “More generally speaking, all market segments will benefit from emerging surveillance innovations that provide higher-quality video and increased amounts of data for both physical security and business applications.”

Ultimately, the challenge for the integrator in 2018 will be the same as it always has been: making the camera work for the customer in any way they need it to. “No longer simply security devices, cameras are of huge interest to customers to address a variety of needs,” says Rick Tampier, senior director sales and product strategy, Red Hawk Fire & Security, Boca Raton, Fla. “As an integrator it’s up to us to rise to the challenge of meeting that increase in demand by delivering the best systems and services for the client.”

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Video Surveillance in 2017: Slowing Growth
Video Surveillance 2017: Slowing Growth Chart - SDM
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Video Surveillance in 2018: Strong but Tempered
Video Surveillance 2018: Strong but Tempered Chart - SDM
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Spending Outlook: IP Video
Video Surveillance 2018: IP Video Chart - SDM
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Spending Outlook: DVRs/NVRs/Video Storage/Servers
Video Surveillance 2018 Spending Outlook: DVRs/NVRs/Video Storage/Servers Chart - SDM
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Spending Outlook: Video Analytics
Video Surveillance 2018 Spending Outlook: Video Analytics Chart - SDM
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Spending Outlook: Video Surveillance/CCTV
Video Surveillance Spending Outlook: Video Surveillance/CCTV - SDM
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Occurrence of Video-Based Services Among the Security Channel
Video Surveillance 2018 Occurrence of Video-Based Services Among the Security Channel Chart - SDM


Government Watch

Jake Parker says SIA is keeping its eye on several developments that could affect the market, including the federal market for video surveillance. “Obviously there’s a lot of equipment deployed out there securing federal buildings and facilities and military bases and things like that,” Parker says. What the government does with regard to that equipment and technology could have a large impact on the market.

One such thing Parker says could soon have an impact is the Defense Authorization Bill that was recently enacted, and that carried with it the Modernizing Government Technology Act (signed into law Dec. 12, 2017). This is legislation that Parker says has been talked about in the tech community over the past year: “It’s really aimed at replacing these legacy IT systems that we’ve heard some stories about in the government, and it has allowed some agencies to use extra money that they don’t spend on other accounts and dedicate it to IT modernization, and also creates a fund for federalized IT modernization under GSA.”

The bill provides two mechanisms to accomplish the modernization; one allows agencies to create working capital funds, which they can put extra money into at the end of fiscal years. There should be at least some funding available in that for sure,” Parker says. The other broader modernization fund authorizes $500 million.

Parker says he is talking with people in Congress and in government agencies over the next several months to better understand the effect this bill will have. “The way that’s defined, it includes literally all Federal Information Systems as eligible projects, so it definitely includes access control but also video surveillance and intrusion detection systems — anything under security and surveillance — as eligible for that modernization funding.”

Parker says SIA’s hope is that they can help explain the need for modernization to those making decisions and says he will have a better handle on what this might mean for the industry in early 2018.

 

All Aboard the Cyber Train

Cyber security is something that the industry must either get on board with or suffer the consequences, many of which are seen all too often splashed across the headlines of major news outlets. This means entering a space that some security integrators might not feel comfortable in because it means changing their approach and educating themselves and their customers.

It is, however, a necessity in what Perry Levine, director of strategic alliances, BCDVideo, Buffalo Grove, Ill., calls the new norm. “Having actionable information available anytime, anywhere and on any device, presents a unique security challenge — the omnipresent risk of a cyber-attack. The need to increase cyber security awareness and provide educational resources to security integrators on best practices and cyber security standards has never been more important.”

Levine says it is critical for security integrators to become familiar with the latest IT security standards and practices while constantly updating the cyber security processes of the video surveillance solutions to provide protection from the ever-evolving threats. He says, “Organizations such as the Security Industry Association and the PSA Security Network have developed guidelines and educational programs on the latest cyber security best practices.”

Rick Tampier at Red Hawk Fire & Security, agrees. “It’s up to our industry to focus more clearly on securing the vulnerabilities that exist while stressing to end users the need to take the proactive measures of implementing traditional access control, intrusion detection and visitor management systems, thus creating layers of security to guard against security risks.”

Up until very recently, cyber security in all aspects of security has been largely overlooked, says Ben Powell, sales and engineering manager, Strategic Security Solutions, Raleigh, N.C. “Our clients are moving toward the model of having their integrators manage the cyber security for all the devices installed on their network, removing the client’s IT group responsibility for managing the devices,” Powell says. “This is a big change for us and has meant that we have to develop a better understanding of the issues and how we can go about supporting such changes and the costs involved — perhaps reshaping how we go to service agreements in the future.”

While recognition is definitely increasing, there is still a long way to go and some who take it more seriously than others. “The reality is that among some of our partners and integrators and everybody there are varying degrees of folks out there that try to take it more seriously than others,” says Tony Varco at Convergint Technologies, who adds that it’s important to take more of a holistic, end-to-end look at cyber. “From the manufacturers to the consultants to the integrators to the end users, I think we all play a role in creating a cyber security solution.”

There is a real concern however, about customers who, despite the headlines and media attention cyber is getting — and even the negative press specific manufacturers are getting — still want products from these manufacturers because they are cheap, says Hank Monaco at Johnson Controls. “That seems like it is not being taken seriously.”

The challenge, then, says Joe Gittens, director of standards, SIA, is really finding that balance between low-cost systems and secure systems. “I’m not saying that all the most cyber secure systems are the higher priced ones; however, I am saying that a lot of times the cheapest solution kind of throws caution to the wind.”

Gittens adds, “Make sure those things are being weighed and customers are being educated about the risks of having video cameras, which are basically IoT devices that can be an entryway into your enterprise network.”

 

Cloud Continues to Climb

The Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) market is expected to grow at a considerable rate of more than 10 percent, says Tejaswini Karpe, senior research analyst, MarketsandMarkets.

In fact, Karpe says we can expect VSaaS to grow at a greater rate than the overall video surveillance market. “Major demand is derived from retail, small businesses and residential applications,” Karpe says, adding that VSaaS offers the major benefits of using any device such as laptops, mobile phones and desktop computers to remotely access the video feeds stored in the cloud.

Other benefits Karpe describes are added security and scalability. “As data is stored offsite, it is more secured and protected from accidents and thefts. Scalability is another positive aspect of VSaaS as it simply requires the addition of cameras to scale up VSaaS rather than looking for storage devices. Low cost of subscription rather than spending on the storage solutions drives the growth market for VSaaS.”

The shift is definitely happening, says Andrew Elvish of Genetec. “Maybe not at the end of 2018, but as we get closer to 2020, 2021, I think the cloud will be such a huge part of everything we’re selling in this industry, and I think we might see the industry shift because of that.”

According to Ken Francis, Eagle Eye Networks, a provider of cloud-based video surveillance solutions, his company has been bringing on 20 dealers a month. This is something people are asking for, says Francis. “The biggest trend that we see because we sell exclusively cloud is the end user telling the integrator, ‘I want a cloud system,’ and the integrator being a little skeptical and still needing a bunch of education when they call us.”

The trend, however, is undeniable. While there will always be a market for non-cloud NVRs and DVRs, Francis believes the share of cloud versus on-site is going to continue to swing toward cloud.

 

Compression Game Changers — The Usual Suspects

As video resolution continually improves, compression is becoming more important than ever. H.264 has been the compression standard that has allowed a lot of the mobile video usage, says Joe Gittens of the Security Industry Association (SIA).

Gittens says people in the industry have been anxiously awaiting H.265, which is the next step in compressing video files even smaller. (For more on current and future compression standards, read “Unraveling Video Compression: The Benefits and Drawbacks of H.265”.)

However, Gittens believes H.265 might be leapfrogged by some of the video standards that are being developed by companies such as Google and Amazon that really need this type of compression. “They run the YouTubes, they run Amazon Videos, they run the Netflix’s — and that’s really what’s driving the improvements,” Gittens says. “So you’re going to see those companies developing compression standards that allow this market to grow even more.”

Gittens says H.265 has already been surpassed by Google’s compression standard and Amazon’s internal compression protocol that they’re working on.

H.265 isn’t going away anytime soon, however. “H.265 will play a bigger part in 2018,” says Miguel Lazatin, product and channel marketing director, Hanwha Techwin America, who says many manufacturers downplayed the importance of H.265 because they weren’t ready, but are now beginning to incorporate it into their product plans.

 

Seize the Opportunities in 2018 & Beyond

Cameras are getting less and less expensive. How close they are to the bottom is up for debate, but in light of these falling prices, it is important for security integrators to offer more value-added service capabilities, higher level, enterprise-type level professional services, and really couple that with the fact that you can install a product on time and on budget, says Tony Varco of Convergint Technologies.

“Integrators in particular need to realize that they’re not just selling cameras anymore,” Varco says; “you’re selling compliance, you’re selling risk mitigation, and you’re selling solutions that create these business outcomes. To me it reeks of an opportunity to have some complementary, value-added services along the way, and I do think that also helps to prevent what’s happening in terms of the pricing side of things and this whole commoditization that’s taking place with a lot of the equipment that we work with.”

Another opportunity provided by cheaper cameras is a broader audience for video. “There’s a broader audience for video applications today than there’s ever been,” says Tony Mucci of Johnson Controls, “because the cost of entry has really come down to a fair degree and there is a heightened awareness among our end users of the capabilities of video. That continuing education that all of us on the consumer side have as to the functional benefits of video and the quality of video is something that plays into this as well.”

Essentially, Mucci says, falling prices have given security integrators the ability to really offer customers a broad choice. “You can have inexpensive, very value-oriented video, and you can sacrifice the quality, or you can invest a little more and have a broader range of features and functions. And that’s a good choice for us to offer to our customers.”

Another way to get ahead in a healthy market, says Fredrik Nilsson, Axis Communications, is to invest in areas where there’s higher growth.

Axis has seized on this by getting into IP audio and IP intercom where there is very little convergence to IP at this time. “Then hopefully [we can] add value to the partners by saying, ‘We don’t only have video, we have those two, three, four other technologies they can integrate to provide more value for your customers.’”

 

Privacy Concerns, Coming Soon to a Continent Near You

Privacy and privacy protection is absolutely paramount in European countries, but especially in Germany and the Nordic regions, says Genetec’s Andrew Elvish.

Genetec is the only company to have received a GDPR-ready designation by EuroPriSe, which is a European privacy organization, Elvish explains. “GDPR is a very big part of our story and what we’re bringing to market. We were just recertified three months ago but it was our fourth two-year term in a row. So over the past eight years we keep going back-to-back, and we keep being the only video surveillance software out there to actually receive the EuroPriSe designation for privacy.”

Elvish says things such as privacy and cyber security are going to become a chief concern for the rest of the world very soon.

“It’s an essential thing and so many companies are already demanding it in North America where we have a much different profile of privacy and data security; we can see that this is not far off — probably in a different way, but I see that is a really big driver.”

 

The Outlook for Video Surveillance Data Storage in 2018

In 2017 the video surveillance community saw the emergence of video surveillance as a service (VSaaS). As predicted, we also witnessed an increase in intelligence in cameras, greater adoption of analytics, and more content aggregation. In addition, biometrics assumed increasing importance as a measure to prevent massive data breaches.

I anticipate a number of key trends to characterize the video surveillance data storage market in 2018.

  • VSaaS takes off: Last year we saw service providers and customers testing the market with surveillance-as-a-service, and in 2018 we should watch for it to gain momentum and acceptance with a wider audience. As this service goes mainstream, we’ll also see devices becoming more intelligent. Think of multiple retailers in a shopping mall setting having their video surveillance system managed by their property manager.
  • Increase in analytics: In 2017 neural networks, machine learning, real-time analytics, and artificial intelligence all got significant airplay. These forward-looking technologies are rapidly turning into real offerings for 2018, with implications for the security community such as more integration of a variety of sensor analytics.
  • More data will be created and retained longer: Retention times aren’t shrinking, and LTO tape is increasingly viewed as a vital element in surveillance storage architectures. With more data being produced that is vulnerable to cyber attack, people are also recognizing the advantage of the air-gapped protection against ransomware that is inherent with tape.
  • LTO-8 tape technology lowers the barrier to multi-tiered storage: LTO-8 doubles tape cartridge capacity from the previous generation, enabling customers to store up to 12 TB per cartridge for more cost-effective, long-term data retention. We will leverage these enhancements to deliver multi-tier solutions for persistent data growth and protection challenges in video surveillance, to offer cost-effective tiering for as little as half a petabyte of data.

The multi-tier storage architecture Quantum has articulated as an enabling technology for video surveillance is clearly seeing traction going into the New Year. There are market challenges — both political and technical — but the overall trend is one of progress. Customers have noted that storage vendor consolidation in the channel is resulting in a narrower set of resellers. The market is in a state of flux, and additional stakeholders want to use surveillance data, so educating the market on how to use these architectures to resolve these problems is increasingly important. — Contributed by Wayne Arvidson, vice president, intelligence, surveillance and security solutions, Quantum Corporation, San Jose, Calif.