Server Hardware Recommendations

Dynamic Network Factory makes really good video servers as well as Seneca Data, which is just a Dell box with the Seneca log and their own monitoring software. Both work really well though.

Exacq has come down quite a bit on some of their recorders making them much more competitive.

This is probably obvious, but keep in mind that in January 2020 support for Windows 7 and Server 2008 will end, so beware of cutting costs by getting an older (or used) server.

We surveyed integrators on their favorite server/storage manufacturers and Dell was the most frequently cited manufacturer, followed by HP and then BCDVideo and Exacq.

A few things I valued as an integrator were:

• Default length and cost of hardware support (1, 3, 5 years)
• Local representative presence
• Remote/phone support needs

Some video surveillance focused suppliers will include hard drives in with their hardware warranty, whereas many COTS server suppliers will only provide 1 year or less warranty on the hard drives even if you purchase a 3 or 5-year warranty on the server. 

A local sales rep can often make or break your success with any manufacturer, depending on how many other dealers they need to support, their relationships with Architect and Engineering firms that drive bid specifications, and willingness or ability to offer special project pricing deals. Given that servers and drives are essentially a commodity, the easier to deal with sales rep, who is better connected to customers in your area could be the reason to choose Manufacturer A over Manufacturer B.

Depending on the VMS you are supporting, selling their recommended or branded server could decrease support time, and limit the different phone number and on-hold queues your technicians may have to sit through when you have a problem. However, as you pointed out, buying from a VMS manufacturer is adding an additional sales layer which results in the same servers being sold at a higher cost.

Even though we (Milestone) sell our own NVRs, we also have strong partnerships with a lot of hardware vendors.  We even recently started up a System Builder program to help these partners be even more successful with Milestone.  To date, the following companies have signed up for the System Builder program:

 - Arbitech
 - Arxys
 - BCD Video
 - HyperDrive
 - IoNodes
 - Norion
 - Promise Technology
 - Seneca Data
 - Venzo

We also have a certification/verification program that hardware partners (along with analytics partners, access control partners, etc.) can participate in as well as anyone being able to sign up as a Solution Partner.  You can see the list of Server partners here.  It will list all of the ones that have been certified/verified first and it will indicated if it is a certified solution.