RS-Unix Uses Mass Storage To Protect Mass Transit

In response to a request last December from a West Coast transit organization, IBM solution provider rs-unix has been integrating off-the-shelf hardware and software products into a complete system aimed at capturing and storing video surveillance images, said Bob Kusche, eServer solutions architect at the solution provider.

The transit organization, which declined to be named, turned to Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM looking for a solution which would allow images from up to 2,200 video cameras based in more than 44 locations to be centrally managed and accessed. The transit organization requested that the images be accessible via software from BroadWare Technologies, Cupertino, Calif.

IBM turned to rs-unix to develop a solution that would allow those images to be stored on hard disk for up to 12 days and thus available for instant recovery. Such a setup would allow transit officials or safety personnel to quickly review event footage or proactively look for dangers.

San Francisco-based rs-unix currently is writing the RFP for the project. Kusche said falling hardware and software costs have made the solution possible.

The VAR looked for components that work with IBM servers and storage devices, and turned to San Diego-based BakBone Software to handle data protection, said Jeff Medeiros, president and CEO of rs-unix.

The solution provider chose BakBone&'s NetVault Virtual Disk Library software, which allows data to be backed up to disk or tape and restored instantly. IBM promotes the software as an alternative for customers too small to work with IBM Tivoli storage management software, Medeiros said.

Anindya Mukherjee, senior manager of BakBone&'s Strategic Alliances group, said NetVault&'s disk-to-disk backup technology allows quick recovery of data, easy off-site replication for disaster recovery with optional encryption, and policy-based management for archiving and data retention.

The BroadWare Media Platform is used to coordinate the collection and management of multiple streams of video surveillance. The software originally was used by the military and now is common at airports. It is sold exclusively through the channel, said Bill Stuntz, CEO of BroadWare.

In addition to storing digital video surveillance data, the BroadWare software also integrates with other software, such as biometric or video analytic software, to trigger an event or a record.

Medeiros said rs-unix is offering such software from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Vidient as an option to its solution. The Vidient software, originally developed for CNN&'s cameras to watch for flying baseballs at games, looks for suspicious vehicles, wrong-way traffic and other suspicious events to trigger an alert. “It&'s the software that sells the solution,” he said.

In addition, rs-unix is using software from Aduva, Sunnyvale, running on an IBM server to manage all the other Linux-based servers in the solution. The entire solution runs on Novell SuSE Linux, Medeiros said.

The complete solution starts at $22,000 for a four-camera configuration, Kusche said. With the Vidient software, the configuration price jumps to $30,000. The solution can scale to thousands of cameras.