Favorite Video Storage / Server Manufacturers 2019

By IPVM Team, Published Mar 25, 2019, 09:30am EDT

189 integrators answered this question:

"What is your favorite storage device / server manufacturer for recording video? Why?"

In general IT, the top-selling server manufacturers are Dell, HP, Lenovo, but would those 3 be favored by security integrators? And on the video recorder appliance side, the 2 largest providers are Dahua and Hikvision but would they be top here?

This is the successor to the Favorite Video Storage / Servers 2016 report.

Inside, we analyze the results, show you who is the clear favorite in this category and what notable manufacturers are missing.

Key ******

*** ********* *** ****** emerged:

  • ********* *** ********* ************* since ****, *** ** Hikvision.
  • **** (*******) ******** *** top ******* ******, ********* over *********, *** ***** selections **** *********** **** compared ** ****.
  • *** *** *** ******* (after **** *** *********) but *** ********** ****** in *** ** - 200 ****** *******.
  • ** ******** ******* ***** 2016.
  • ****** *** ********** ******* and ***** *** **** but *** ***** *********'* level ***** ***********.

Appliance *** ******* / *** *** ***** ****** ******

*** ********** *** *** specific ******* ******* **** 20% ** ********* ** 2016 ** **** **% in ****. **** *******, Hikvision **** *** **% of ***** *********, ** from **** *% ** 2016, *** ******** ******* to **% ** ********.

******* *** ***** ********** were ********** (************ *** under ** ****** *******), price *****, ******** *********** support:

  • "** ********* ** **** the *** ******** ** the ****** ************. **** typically ********** *** ****** pointing ******* *** ****** manufacturer *** *** ***/*** supplier ** ***** *** any ******."
  • "*** **** *** **** than ** ******* ** we *** ************ ****"
  • "*** *** *****. **** I ****, *** ****, but ****'* **** *** customers *** ***"
  • "***** **** ** **** use ****. ********* *********. Larger **** ** *** been ***** ***** ********. The ***** *****'* **** to ** *****."
  • "*** ******* ******* ** get **** ********** **** more **** ****** *** our *****. ****** ****** with ******* ** *** (RAID ****** *** **********) "
  • "** **** *** ***** results **** *** *** Seneca ** ********* ***** with *** *** ************'* solution *** **** ********."
  • "** *** **** ********'* own, ** **** **** service *** *******"
  • "*** ******** * *** product, **** **** ********* service ******* *** *** distribution *** ******** ** good. ********** ******* ** done *** ******** ** qnap *** *******."
  • "** ********* **** *** Avigilon ******* **** *******. Keeps *** ***** ** responsibility *******."
  • "********'* **** ******* ******* with ****'* **** **** my ********. *** ** the ******* ** ******** and ****** ******** ***** from. **** **** ** hold ** ****** **** and ** **** ** have ******** **'** ******* notified."
  • "******** - ** *** a ***** ******** ******/********** - ** ***** ***** is ** "
  • "*** *******/******* ******* ** use *** ***/****"
  • "***** ******* **** **** been **** ********** **** the *****."
  • "** *** ***** ******* for ***, **** ******** SSA ***** *** *** of *** *****"
  • "********* ***** *** **** installations. **** ********* *** reliable."
  • "*********/******* ********, ** *****'* used **** ****** *** their ********** *** **** friendly"
  • "*****. *****, **** ****"
  • "** *** ****** **** or ********* ***** ****. most ** *** **** don't ******* ******* ** these *** **********"

Dell **** ******** *****

**** *** ***** ** 26% ** *********. ***********, cost, *** ******* ** support **** ********** ********* by ********* ********** ****:

  • "**** ******* (**** ** R540 ******) **** ******* on *****. ********** ******** with ****** ******* **** DELL ******** ** ********* for */* *****. **** more ******** **** ****..."
  • "**** ** ** ********. We **** ** **** reliable ****** ***"
  • "** *** ****/*** ******* for *** ** *** custom *********. **** **** a ****** ** ******* for ***** *********, *** are ****** ** ***** from. ***** ******** *** customer ******* ** **** great. "
  • "****. ******** *** **** cheaper **** "*******-*****" ******** that *** ***** *** from **** ******."
  • "****.... ***** ******* ******* in *****, ********* * hour ******** ***** **** onsite *******.... *** *** get **** **** *** CCTV ************."
  • "** *** * **** partner. ****, ***, *** other **** ****** **** served ** ****. ** have **** **** ** the ********* ****** *************, but * **** **** more ******* ******* ** hardware ****** ** **** an *** *** ***** dell."
  • "****. ***********, ************* *** firmware ************, *******."
  • "*** ******* **** *** off *** *****, *** Dell ******* **** **** reliable *** ****-*********."
  • "** ********* *** **** systems. ** **** *** dependability *** *********** **** that *****."
  • "**** *** ********* ******** server/storage ******** ** * reasonable *****."

****, **** ********* ** Dell *** ******* **** Avigilon *** ***, **** account *** ****** **% of *** ******* ******** in *** ******.

BCDVideo ****** ** **-*** ***** *******

*** (******** ****)******** **** * ***** mentions *** *** *********** flat ******** ** ****. Integrators **** ******** ***** that ******* ** *** primary ****** *** ***** them:

  • "******** ** *** ********* server ************. **** **** always ****** **** *** quickly **** **** ** any ****** **** *** come **.
  • "** **** ** **********-***** installations ** ** *** deploying ******** ******* ** every *** ** ***... ...We **** ********* **** BCD *** ** ***** support *** ********. **** may ** ******** **** expensive **** ***** ************* but *** ******* ** get **** **** ******* makes ** *** *** cost ********."
  • "** *** ******** *** most *** ** *** recording ********. **** **** a **** ************ **** Genetec *** **** **** work. ****** *** *** NBD ******** ** **** a **** ******* ** have ** ****."
  • "* ****** ****** ** use ****. ***** ******* and ************** *** *** notch. ***** ** * reason **** *** *** so **** *************."
  • "******** (****) ****** ******* of *** *********** **** BCD, *** ********* *******, and ********."
  • "***. ********. **** ******** service."
  • "********. **** *******, ********** pricing."

** *** ****** ***** Mentions

** *** ****** **** had **** ** **** mentions ** ***. *********** who ******** ***** ** noted **** ** *** because ***** ** *********** and **** * ***** a ******** ********* ** support ******:

  • "** **** **** ***** HP *******, ** ** are ** **** ********"
  • "***% ** *** ****** use ** *******. ** are * ** ******* and **** * ***** relationship **** *** ***** HP ***********"
  • "***. **** *** *** remote ********** ******** *** onsite ******** *******"
  • "*** *** ******* ********** accounts ** **** ******* the *** ******** ** a ** ** ***** G4 *********** ** *** recorder."
  • "** - ** **** is **** **** ** the ****** ****** ********** within * ******* ****** environment."

****** ********* ***** **** support *** *******:

  • "****** *** **** *** favorite ************ *** ***** and ****** ******* ******* along **** ****** ************. Servers *** **** ****** compared ** **** ******* you *** ****** **** the *** ************. **** sales *** ********* ******* have **** *********."
  • "****** ****** ******* *** product ********* ** *****"
  • "** ******** ** ****** last **** *** **** had ****** **** ******* with ***** ********. *** don’t **** ** ** tons ** ******* ******* and ***** * ***** next ******** *** ******** standard ** ****** **** as ****."

Custom ***** *** *******

******-***** *** ********** ******* were * ******** ********, but * ***** ****** did **** **** *** reasons ** *********** ** price:

  • "** ****** ******, *** custom ***** ** ** servers. *** ****** **** to **** **** *** we ***** *** ** our ******* ******* **** are *** ***** ******* and ** ** ******* than ****** ***-**** ******** that **** ***** ***** for * ****** ****."
  • "** ******-***** *** **** gamer ******* ********** ******* of *** ******* ** handle *** ******* ** CCTV *****"
  • "*******: ** ************ ******. Reliable, **** ** ***** so ** **** ** change. ** ***** *** own *******"
  • "***** *** - ** build *** *** *** units *** *** *** video *******. * ***** little *** *** *** needs."

Comments (29)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

03/25/19 01:45pm
  • BCD was 3rd overall (after Dell and Hikvision) but was especially strong in the 50 - 200 camera segment.
  • HP declined notably since 2016.

I wonder how much of this pertains to BCD picking up Dell / moving away from HP? 

To me, it appears when it comes to VMS servers BCD, Seneca, and Avigilon drive the product.  That is, unless the customer provides the server.

Agree: 2
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed End User #2

03/25/19 02:16pm

Out of curiosity - what was the respondent’s views on Pivot3? We are a BCD end user but have seen some aggressive efforts by Pivot3 lately to win the buisness.

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative: 2
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Sean Patton

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed End User #2 | 03/25/19 02:30pm

Pivot3 did not receive any mentions, however Pivot3 is generally limited to very large end users and not applicable to most general integrator projects.

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative: 3
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Matthew Del Salto

BLACKBOX USA
03/25/19 03:14pm

No mention of our Disaster Ready Fireproof and Waterproof servers? 😁 Our servers go up to 180TB per unit with ISCSI/SMB/NFS with a 5 year warranty and data recovery plan built in. Everything is designed here in the USA!

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed #3

In reply to Matthew Del Salto | 03/25/19 06:55pm

Yeah but metric screws hold it together.  /jk

IPVM can you get a NAS/SAN/High-Density storage review going? Synology, FreeNAS, QNAP, UCS, EMC.

Agree: 10
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny: 2

Undisclosed Manufacturer #4

03/25/19 09:30pm

IPVM - this is an interesting survey - who has the better experience?  How are they optimized over a standard Dell server?  How are the OEM solutions different from one another?  What value are they providing for the end user / systems integrator? Cost difference?

Would love to see IPVM expand on this.

Since Dell appears to be trending as an OEM for many players, Dell seems to be competing with their own OEM customers.

Dell Direct

Arrow/Seneca = Dell OEM

Avigilon = Dell OEM

BCDVideo = Dell OEM

Salient - Dell OEM

Agree: 9
Disagree
Informative: 3
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Manufacturer #6

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #4 | 03/27/19 01:21pm

If you go a little further beyond just servers, many of the storage offerings are being OEM'd by Dell from NetApp and Seagate, outside of the EMC line. It's no different than if you peel back the hood on HP.  If you are looking at costs alone, you might be able to go direct to the source for savings, however, you miss out on the service and warranty benefits a name brand like Dell (and by extension some of their storage OEM partners) offer.   In video surveillance storage, reliability and resiliency are core requirements to many enterprise customers so the service response time becomes critical in the overall sale. 

Agree: 2
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Donavan Paul

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #4 | 03/28/19 12:31pm

Did you mean Rasilient also - Dell OEM?

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Donavan Paul

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #4 | 03/28/19 12:38pm

Does anyone know if Rasilient also a Dell OEM?

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Ken Mills

03/25/19 10:10pm

I am the GM for the Dell team focused on this market and I sincerely appreciate all the positive comments about our products and our OEM partners. Please let us know what we can do to provide even more value in the surveillance market. 

Agree: 2
Disagree
Informative: 5
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #5

In reply to Ken Mills | 03/27/19 12:37pm

You can maybe make it easier for a dealer to get a quote for your products, or make more of an effort to return phone calls. Last time I tried to find storage for a customer (because they specifically requested a Dell), Dell's website was very bad about trying to pick out an optimal server with storage. It limited you in selection to 8TB drives (when 10's and 12's are more common now), and a very un-intuitive way of trying to select components. So I thought it would be easier to just call. Was told that just because it was larger hard drives, just the hard drives, it had to go to a "special" enterprise group. They never returned my calls.

So if you have a special team focused on this market, it might be a good idea to have better training in the call center that it actually exists with better protocol to facilitate communication.

Agree: 7
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Ken Mills

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #5 | 03/27/19 01:28pm

Reach out to me directly and I will get you connected. This is also one of the reasons we have OEMs like BCDVideo, Seneca and our VMS partners. They can often provide faster and more specific support to the surveillance channel. My email is ken.mills@dell.com 

Agree: 2
Disagree
Informative: 2
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #5

In reply to Ken Mills | 03/27/19 02:11pm

Thanks. I will keep handy for any future needs.

[Edit] Actually tough, that brings up the question... so is your group focused on OEM'ing equipment to resellers, or selling Dell branded storage through Dell, or both? Because the customer was asking for a specific family of servers, not a relabel brand.

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Ken Mills

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #5 | 03/27/19 07:40pm

My team supports all of the channels for Dell in the surveillance space. 

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Ken Mills | 03/28/19 03:00am

Ken, it's sounding to me like Dell needs to not cast such a wide net.  If there are server sales pertaining to surveillance or access control just turn it over to the partners to handle.  No sense in Dell trying to haphazardly compete.  Every Dell direct purchase I or my clients have ever made turns out like the above person noted.  If I call BCD I have servers in 10-15 business days build to my specifications with one point of contact.  If I call Avigilon the server ships next day and I don't need to speak to a person. If I call Dell... well, I don't call Dell anymore but customers do when they are trying to bypass us to get cheaper hardware.

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Ken Mills

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 03/28/19 09:38am

This is great feedback. This is why we have OEMs. There is not a one size fits all. My team actively works with the Dell field to support our OEMs in deals and my team is compensated the same regardless of how you buy. If you prefer working with Avigilon and BCD as you mentioned, that is great. If my team can help please let me know. 

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 2
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #5

In reply to Ken Mills | 03/29/19 06:36pm

This is why we have OEMs.

But you don't specify if you are doing only OEM and/or reseller channel, or if Dell is trying to have it's cake and eat it too by selling to everyone down the chain: OEM, reseller/integrator and end user. Because by trying to cater CCTV and physical security vertical products to everyone, that can cause everyone problems- from OEM's and dealers whose customers are constantly trying to see they can go around the dealer and direct to Dell, to end users if there is not a well communicated protocol and education in the first line of Dell sales and support who even know if your groups existence, which is what I ran into.

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #5 | 03/31/19 06:44pm

But you don't specify if you are doing only OEM and/or reseller channel

#5, they are clearly doing both and that's what he means by his "team is compensated the same regardless of how you buy"

if there is not a well communicated protocol and education in the first line of Dell sales and support who even know if your groups existence, which is what I ran into.

That's a good point. I would be interested to see what Dell has to say here.

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Ken Mills

In reply to John Honovich | 03/31/19 07:04pm

We have made significant investments in my team to help drive much better education of the Dell field. It is a process and won't happen over night but we working hard to train our 50k+ reps. In encourage you to reach out to me or my team if you run into an account team that has not been trained. 

Agree
Disagree
Informative: 1
Unhelpful
Funny

Ty Mullen

COR Security, Inc.
In reply to Ken Mills | 03/28/19 03:51pm

We are a Dell Premier dealer. Most of the time our cost are higher than the public website. Very frustrating!

Agree: 3
Disagree
Informative: 4
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Brian Selltiz

IPVMU Certified | 03/26/19 05:26pm

Was just recently introduced to Arxys for our Milestone installs. Great product so far, with specific configs for GPU hardware acceleration which helps with the price point.

Agree: 2
Disagree
Informative: 4
Unhelpful
Funny: 1
Avatar

Andy Newbom

Arxys | In reply to Brian Selltiz | 02/27/20 08:16pm

Thanks for the vote of confidence Brian!

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

Eric Chi

03/27/19 01:21pm

How about Promise? Anybody here had used it as the storage for surveillance?

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Avatar

Mark Halleck

03/27/19 03:34pm

As the South Central Territory Manager for Geutebrück it was good to see our product mentioned here. With installations in over 70 countries we are well known in other parts of the world and we are excited to see market awareness and adoption in North America is on the rise. 

From our 4 Port Mobile appliance to our 8000 Series of stackable servers we can support any size installation. When you add in our industry leading 5-year warranty and advanced server-side analytics we have a compelling story that is gaining more attention.

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Manufacturer #7

07/26/19 06:50pm

A late comment here but, I've seen NetApp recently making a some noise in the video surveillance storage market at industry events and elsewhere (netapp.com/vss). They seem to have a long and storied history with their E-Series SAN product for on-prem storage. Any opinion on their viability in this space.

NOTICE: This comment has been moved to its own discussion: Any Opinion On The Viability Of Netapp In Video Surveillance?

Agree: 1
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #8

10/31/19 03:46pm

Just curious...are there any NVR OEM's that still use HP Hardware? With everyone switching to Dell hardware, it's getting harder and harder to find HP hardware for that one-off customer that just has to have HP.

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Manufacturer #9

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #8 | 10/31/19 04:36pm

HP is still making servers? I'm joking, but I bet it won't be long before they get rid of that business too. (of course I'm sure this is almost a religious battle with your customer, so there's no way to win.)

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny: 1
Avatar

Ken Mills

10/31/19 03:59pm

My team is happy to help you position why a Dell OEM is a better choice. We have had great success converting HP customers to Dell OEMs. My email is ken.mills@dell.com

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny

Undisclosed Integrator #8

In reply to Ken Mills | 10/31/19 04:07pm

Unfortunately, this customer is an HP house, otherwise it would be a Seneca server.

Agree
Disagree
Informative
Unhelpful
Funny
Read this IPVM report for free.

This article is part of IPVM's 6,912 reports, 924 tests and is only available to members. To get a one-time preview of our work, enter your work email to access the full article.

Already a member? Login here | Join now
Loading Related Reports