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Should IT Use DVRs for Video Surveillance Storage?
by John Honovich, IPVM posted on Jul 28, 2009 About John Contact JohnGetting away from DVRs is one of the most common themes in the convergence of IT and security. The DVR is widely viewed as an out-dated device that is not powerful or scalable enough to be part of the legimitate IT infrastructure.
This week, Intransa released a whitepaper addressed to IT users on the limitations of DVRs and the challenges of recording IP video. While the whitepaper advocates the use of Intransa's own NVR appliances, the first part of the paper succinctly catalogs the core case against DVRs.
Counter-Arguments Against DVR Criticisms
A number of the key criticisms Intransa makes against DVRs reflect an older generation of products. For instance:
- Professional DVRs are no longer shipped back if a hard drive fails. A classical problem with DVRs, most manufacturer now allow hard drives to be replaced locally to reduce the cost and complexity of losing a system for an extended period of time.
- Storage capacity is no longer limited to the boundaries of the DVR box. DVR manufacturers are becoming increasingly flexible in supporting USB or fireware attached external storage.
- Even if a hard drive fails, most professional DVRs will continue to run becaue the OS and the application is stored on a flash drive. This eliminates a major reliability concern.
Additionally, some of the storage growth drivers seem over-stated:
- While video surveillance retention periods are growing, this seems to be a response to the continued drop in storage costs rather changes in customer demand. HIPAA and Sarbanes/Oxley may impact some users but they are a minority.
- With H.264 megapixel, bit rates of video will not rise as quickly as feared. While megapixel H.264 may not deliver the extreme savings some proponents argue, it will certainly end the need for 20-30Mb/s per camera.
DVRs and Storage Appliance Features Merging?
One trend I see both from the DVR manufacturers and a company like Intransa is to merge the best features of legacy DVRs with IT storage arrays. While IT storage arrays can improve scalabiltiy and performance, DVRs reduce setup complexity and lower startup cost.
Maybe the legacy DVR is dead but its replacement looks to be better DVRs and storage arrays that optimize the solution to IP video specific issues. The new question for IT and video surveillance users may be: Do you choose the better DVR or the IP video optimized storage array?
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