Guest: Harry Aujla (LinkedIn)
Company: SIOS Technology (Twitter)

Video surveillance management systems provide an enhanced level of safety and security of people and property. In this episode of TFiR: Let’s Talk, Swapnil Bhartiya sits down with Harry Aujla, EMEA Technical Director at SIOS Technology, to talk about VSM and why high availability is crucial for this type of system.

Key highlights of this video interview:

• A video surveillance management system (VSM) is generally a combination of hardware and software that allows organizations to monitor and manage video footage, which has been captured by cameras in various locations.
• Beyond the basic capabilities (record video images and associated audio and then store those images when required), a lot of VSM solutions today provide remote viewing, various types of playback capabilities, and even real-time alerts of specific activities. Some are also leveraging elements of AI.
• The primary goal of a VSM is to deliver an enhanced level of security and aid in any sort of potential investigations that might be conducted for various reasons. Therefore, high availability (HA) is crucial because even a brief downtime for these systems could put an entire facility and its occupants at risk of intrusion, theft, and other incidents.
• Factors that determine VSM high availability: criticality of the organization’s surveillance operations, the impact of downtime on those operations, extent of availability required to support the continuous surveillance operations and to ensure the safety of people and property.
• Assessing the impact of downtime includes determining the cost of losing surveillance footage or having an unresponsive system, legal liabilities, and compliance requirements.
• The more significant the facility, the more extensive the systems and the more tightly integrated they are going to be. Many of these systems fall under that umbrella of a more comprehensive and wider Building Management and Security (BMS) architecture, which, in addition to video surveillance systems, includes power supply and backup systems, fire suppression and alarm systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, elevator and emergency lighting, access control to the building and the facilities, water supply, waste management, communication network. and emergency communication systems, medical and emergency response systems, data centers, and IT infrastructures. The specific systems and services that are considered critical will depend upon the type of organization and the type of operations that it needs to run.
• SIOS has deployed high availability VSMs in public transport systems, metro systems, airports, sports stadiums and arenas, and shopping malls around the globe.

This summary was written by Camille Gregory.