Lance Kelson, CEO, Tiger Surveillance discusses how integrated systems support critical IT infrastructure.

The integrated systems approach

The rapid proliferation of technologies is both a driver of modern innovation and a source of complexity for organizations.

As applications, databases and IT systems continue to multiply, ensuring seamless data sharing and interoperability has become increasingly challenging.

This issue is particularly critical for IT infrastructure that supports essential sectors like energy, transportation, healthcare, finance and government where the stakes are high and securing operations is key.

As technology evolves, it offers powerful solutions such as advanced alarms, access control and video surveillance systems.

The fast growth in sectors like IP video surveillance and cloud-based solutions, reflects a broader trend toward more advanced integrated systems, to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure.

Given the strict regulations, rising security threats and unpredictable environments surrounding critical infrastructure, minimizing downtime through unified components demands a coordinated strategy.

This integrated system approach is not just the responsibility of individual organizations; it requires collaboration across the entire ecosystem.

Hardware manufacturers, software developers, cloud providers and security professionals must work together to create a unified, resilient infrastructure that not only safeguards critical systems but also delivers lasting value.

The challenge: total business resilience

High availability (HA) refers to the ability of a system or component to remain operational and accessible for a very high percentage of time, typically 99.99% or higher.

It is a critical requirement for systems where downtime must be minimized, such as in critical IT infrastructure, requiring continuous availability of services.

Total business resilience hinges on both data resilience and functional resilience but achieving both simultaneously presents significant challenges due to their distinct focuses and the complexities involved in integrating them.

While data resilience ensures that critical information is secure and recoverable, functional resilience focuses on keeping business operations running smoothly.

The challenge lies in integrated systems with these two objectives without compromising on performance, cost or complexity.

Organizations need to adopt a holistic approach that includes well-coordinated backup strategies, failover plans and automated recovery processes to achieve true resilience in both data and operations.

HA for surveillance infrastructure

Modern surveillance systems rely on a network of interconnected technologies, including cameras, storage, analytics, video management system (VMS) and network components.

To ensure complete business resilience, these diverse technologies must work together seamlessly.

For example, cameras should operate even if the network fails and data must be recoverable despite server crashes.

This complexity highlights the challenge of maintaining both functionality and data resilience in surveillance systems.

Data integrity and availability means that recorded footage is not lost, corrupted or tampered with.

Whether it’s long-term archiving of video data or real-time access to recent recordings, a resilient system protects against data loss from hardware failures, cyber-incidents or accidental deletions.

Effective backup, replication and disaster recovery strategies are necessary to maintain data integrity.

Continuous operation signifies that the surveillance system remains operational 24/7, with high availability and rapid recovery from any outages.

The system must continue recording, transmitting and displaying real-time video feeds without interruption, even during failures, power outages or cyber-attacks.

Current HA solutions

Many available products provide either partial or overly complicated solutions that aren’t fully integrated systems with the key components, causing compatibility problems, inconsistent performance and unreliable operation.

Older methods, designed for general IT use (e.g., Windows clustering), require heavy IT expertise to implement, cost a lot and lack the specialized features needed to ensure high availability in a surveillance environment.

On the other hand, new high-availability software designed for surveillance, like Surveillance HA by Tiger Surveillance, offers deep integrated systems, smart automation and real-time monitoring of all components in the surveillance system.

Tiger Surveillance’s software is a straightforward clustering solution designed for high availability, featuring zero-loss failover.

This easy, yet advanced, solution handles data seamlessly during normal operations, failover and when resuming operations:

1. Normal operations: primary and secondary servers record the same camera data; symmetrical or asymmetrical configurations are supported, e.g., resolution, frame rate, retention, etc.
2. During failover: the secondary recording server takes on the serving role
3. Resuming normal operations: when the primary server recovers, any missing recordings are backfilled automatically. It can then take on the serving role again

Case study: enhancing airport security with Surveillance HA by Tiger Surveillance

An airport’s vast surveillance infrastructure requires uninterrupted monitoring of thousands of video feeds.

Any system downtime, including server migrations and system upgrades, could create critical security gaps.

To a major US airport, securing their surveillance systems was no small feat.

With two large data centers, each housing 45 servers and supporting over 4,000 cameras, the airport had over 4 petabytes of video data to manage.

To ensure continuous, reliable surveillance, the airport needed an HA solution capable of ongoing data replication, zero-loss failover in case of interruptions and efficient long-term data retention.

Surveillance HA was deployed to provide the high-availability solution the airport needed.

Their solution involved configuring a fault-tolerant cluster of two identical Milestone XProtect recording servers – seen as a single server by the management component.

Surveillance HA automatically copied server configurations, removing the need to attach devices to both servers separately, thus simplifying operations and dramatically enhancing system resilience and data protection.

It ensured immediate failover in case of server failure, with no interruption to camera feeds or data recording.

Any missing data during a failure event is automatically recovered, ensuring complete data integrity.

Surveillance HA proved essential for the airport, ensuring uninterrupted security operations and safeguarding vast amounts of data.

This case highlights the importance of specialized high-availability integrated systems able to unify a complex surveillance infrastructure comprised of servers, storage, data management and physical devices.

The role of hybrid cloud in surveillance solutions

Hybrid cloud environments exemplify seamless integrated systems across diverse platforms, blending on-premises infrastructure with cloud services to create a unified IT ecosystem.

Security professionals are increasingly adopting cloud-based solutions for physical security and surveillance because of the scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency they offer.

Rather than fully committing to either on-premises infrastructure or cloud solutions, the hybrid cloud model provides the best of both worlds.

Surveillance generates large volumes of data, requiring efficient storage solutions for both real-time access and long-term retention.

Hybrid cloud enables the extension of local storage to any cloud for immediate access and data redundancy, while leveraging archive cloud storage for long-term, low-cost data retention.

Hybrid cloud allows for the gradual progress of integrated systems, meaning existing on-premises systems can operate alongside cloud-based services.

This reduces the risks and costs associated with a full migration, providing a more strategic and manageable transition path.

Cloud storage, by its nature, is automatically scalable with no provisioning required.

Additional advantages of cloud storage include potential access to any number of AI, analytics, compute and micro services.

Surveillance ecosystem implications

A large-scale infrastructure project – e.g. a camera purchase – is typically the result of a broader compliance mandate, or the need to revamp current capabilities.

In all likelihood, such a purchase will be influenced by the need for a total solution.

To maximize the total value to the customer, all industry players need to adopt a collaborative and forward-thinking approach.

Both hardware and software providers should prioritize integrated systems, creating solutions that are fully compatible with other platforms by adhering to open standards and offering accessible APIs.

This interoperability is crucial for integrated systems, allowing various technologies to come together into a cohesive, future-proof solution.

Integrators and managed service providers, meanwhile, should go beyond simply meeting the initial customer request.

They need to take a holistic view of the project, understanding the broader compliance mandates or technological shifts driving the investment.

By identifying and recommending complementary solutions, they can help build a more comprehensive integrated system that truly meets the client’s needs.

Integrated systems in conclusion

The resilience and effectiveness of critical IT infrastructure projects rely on the seamless integration of diverse technologies into cohesive, interoperable solutions.

Whether driven by compliance mandates or the need to modernize legacy systems, these projects demand more than just hardware and software upgrades – they require a comprehensive approach that addresses both functional and data resilience.

When vendors, integrators and service providers align their efforts toward delivering comprehensive, future-proof systems, they not only meet current demands but also pave the way for long-term success and adaptability.

The key takeaway is clear: those who prioritize integrated systems, collaboration, openness and a client-centered approach will be the ones to deliver truly transformative solutions that set new benchmarks in the industry.

This article was originally published in the October edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.