IBM: Still a Niche Player in Video Surveillance

More than 4 years after IBM's much ballyhooed entrance into the video surveillance, a recent report indicates that the company is no more than a niche player in the market. 

In April 2010, SP&T News conducted an interview with IBM [link no longer available] that I recommend reading. In the interview, IBM discloses:

• They are focused on the public sector for large security and transportation projects
• They are concentrating on making the system intelligent and proactive
• They are acting as a systems integrator in their projects
• Their Smart Surveillance System (S3) is now being branded as the Intelligent Store or Knowledge Store

Their target market is consistent with our review and recommendations from our August 2008 examination of IBM's Smart Surveillance System where we claimed, "For very large deployments with complex security needs, IBM should be seriously considered. In all cases, caution should be used in evaluating this choice."

In February 2010, we attended a presentation by IBM, whose approach was consistent with the above interview. Specifically, the analytics were being approached as a professional services engagement, rather than a simple, 'plug n play' security addition that is favored by many in the industry.

IBM's video surveillance offering has made the most public 'noise' in the State of Illinois, USA where an October 2009 report indicates they were dumped in one county. A February 2010 newscast [link no longer available] for IBM's system in Chicago was more positive but was based on a simplistic anecodetal test. See the embedded video below: