EMC Iomega already is a well-known and successful producer of inexpensive yet reliable personal storage devices for the home and small-business markets.
Now the San Diego, Calif.-based subsidiary of EMC is expanding its horizons to adapt to storage for video surveillance, something few of its competitors are doing.
Iomega on April 6 announced that AXIS Communications’ Video Hosting System is now integrated into two of its StorCenter NAS (network-attached storage) devices and has already started shipping them.
The new video client comes at no extra charge in the StorCenter machines.
StorCenters with an AVHS client offers users new options in handling video surveillance. They can store video files locally and at HDTV or megapixel resolution while simultaneously streaming video data to a secure, off-site storage facility developed by their hosting provider, CEO Jonathan Huberman told eWEEK.
“We’ve simplified the process so that you can provision each camera with only four mouse clicks,” Huberman said. “You can keep, say, 30 days’ worth of video on the frontline NAS and move the older video to a cloud backup or tape tier. Access via the cloud is great to have.”
One use case, Huberman said, would be a health club that desires to protect itself from liability in the case of an on-site injury. The client could set up four videocams and channel all the video into the StorCenter; its 6TB or 12TB-ceiling capacity can easily hold a month’s worth of HD video.
“This also eliminates the need for dealing with expensive and complex DVRs, as well as reduces the necessity of elaborate on-site infrastructure for low-camera count deployments,” Huberman said. “This gives our mutual customers a more secure, highly available and cost-effective solution for their video surveillance needs.”
Iomega has the AVHS client on its new double-drive desktop StorCenter ix2-200 Cloud Edition NAS unit, which ships with up to 6TB of networked storage capacity, Huberman said. The video client is also included in Iomega’s new quad-drive desktop StorCenter ix4-200d Cloud Edition, which has up to 12TB of storage capacity.
Iomega will be moving this capability into rack-mounted storage in the second half of 2011, Huberman said.
The company will add the AVHS client into its four-drive StorCenter ix4-200r, which has up to 8TB of networked storage capacity, and the 12-drive Iomega StorCenter ix12-300r, with up to 24TB of networked storage capacity, Huberman said.