Much has been written about big data—the rapidly growing troves of unstructured and structured data than need to be stored continuously and securely.  What doesn’t get as much attention is an adjunct of big data. This is the huge amounts of video data that are generated constantly by closed circuit TV (CCTV) surveillance. With the world increasingly security conscious, the use of closed circuit TV (CCTV) systems to monitor public and private institutions, businesses, homes, and spaces like parks or parking lots is growing. These systems use multiple cameras to stream surveillance video that must be stored for weeks or months in case they are needed for legal or law enforcement reasons. The demand for closed circuit TV  (CCTV) storage capacity is burgeoning because of higher resolution cameras, faster frame rates, and longer data retention policies.

Network-attached iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and SAS RAID solutions meet these closed circuit TV (CCTV) needs. They protect closed circuit TV (CCTV) video data by eliminating any single point of failure. Depending on the configuration, a RAID array will preserve the closed circuit TV (CCTV) data even if a disk fails. By enabling closed circuit TV (CCTV) video to be streamed to multiple disks, they also provide the write speeds to support numerous camera feeds. Moreover, because RAID disks are removable, security officials who have to scrutinize the closed circuit TV (CCTV) video need to impound only the media rather than an entire digital video recorder.

Common configurations for closed circuit TV  (CCTV) applications are RAID 5 and 6. RAID 5 offers single disk redundancy. Data remains safe if a disk fails. RAID 6 provides even greater security. The closed circuit TV (CCTV) video images are safeguarded should two disks fail. RAID storage is a clear solution for organizations that require around-the-clock accountability to secure their facilities.