Services

Video surveillance is one of the fastest growing segments in the security industry. About 180 million professional surveillance cameras are expected to ship globally in 2019, as reported by IHS Markit. While video surveillance is certainly the “bread and butter” of nearly every security solution, it is not a failsafe technology.

A surveillance system is only as good as the video it reliably delivers for monitoring, playback and instant analysis. Dropped frames result in missing information as well as a loss of surveillance metadata from artificial intelligence. Without this important data, deep learning cannot occur, which prohibits devices from becoming smarter and delivering predictive analytics. Without video to demonstrate compliance to a regulation, a company can face fines, sanctions and a damaged reputation. A firm can lose a lawsuit due to lack of evidence. When hard pressed, an organization may even hold the system integrator, who designed the solution, responsible.

While video loss is top concern for security customers across the board, new technologies are emerging to protect against insufficient storage and hard drive failure. A prime example is Seagate Technology’s SkyHawk Health Management, which is embedded drive monitoring software designed for prevention, intervention and recovery.

SHM is built into all SkyHawk drives and compatible with many video management systems from leading manufacturers — ask your preferred system provider for SHM.

With SHM, integrators and end users get real-time insights on their drive health. Users are able to review the health monitoring dashboard to view data trends and can receive proactive alerts of any status changes. SHM not only provides valuable reporting, but it also makes recommendations to limit drive deterioration. For example, SHM may suggest adjusting the temperature and vibration control.

If after analyzing multiple internal performance parameters and concluding the drive has deteriorated, SHM will recommend backup prior to failure. SHM also gives users the option to supplement their backups with Seagate Rescue Services for additional peace of mind. In the event of actual hard drive failure, SHM provides RAID RapidRebuild™, which is a function that extracts the maximum amount of intact data from a failing drive and immediately copies that data to a spare drive before starting a RAID recovery.

By deploying SHM, customers simplify deployment and service complexity. Users gain insights on data issues, possible threats and are equipped with tools to prevent data from being compromised by adverse conditions. Ultimately, the prevention of hard drive failure reduces the need for costly maintenance services, helps the storage solution perform as intended, and ensures the longevity of the entire surveillance system.