New Intransa Sharable Security Platform for Video Surveillance

Intransa, Inc. announced the Intransa Sharable Security Platform or ISSP. The ISSP is an open, combined storage and computing platform that can be shared simultaneously by multiple software applications with full IP support.

Physical security vendors are able to deploy their applications on the ISSP, including software for open NVRs, video management, physical security information managers, life safety, access control, video analytics, network intercom, biometrics, compression and workflow systems, while interfacing with hardware devices ranging from card readers to IP network cameras. The ISSP takes full advantage of the unmatched scalability and performance of the Intransa shared, external IP storage area network family.

"Intransa brings proven IT system architectures to security applications" said Ray Bernard, CPP, principal consultant, Ray Bernard Consulting Services and publisher, Security Minute e-newsletter. "This is the kind of reliable, high-performance, high throughput, scalable platform that today's security applications should be running on."

At the GSO 2010 and GSI 2010 technology lab and event series, Intransa StorAlliance Technology Partners have demonstrated their solutions integrated with the company's IP storage. These hands-on scenarios were hosted in GSO lab events at Adobe headquarters in San Jose, California, at The Home Depot in Atlanta, Georgia, and at RAND Corporate Headquarters in Santa Monica, California, and at the GSI lab event in Costa Mesa, California. With the knowledge gained in the many GSO/GSI scenarios, multiple vendor software applications will now be able to move to the next step and use the Intransa Sharable Security Platform with underlying Intransa shared, external IP storage to host their compute and storage requirements.

Applications already demonstrated at the GSO/GSI tech lab events have included products from 21 vendors plus Intransa. These are Axis Communications, AgentVI, Cisco Systems, CommendUSA, CoreStreet, Imprivata, InFront, Kaba, Lenel, Microsoft Corporation, Milestone Systems, OnSSI, Privaris, Proximex, Quantum Secure, Orsus, Red Hat, S2 Security, Software House (Tyco), VMware, and XceedID. These vendors are among those authorized to carry the Intransa Security-Grade IP Video Storage Certified designation for their products, a subset of the nearly 100 applications from physical security and IT vendors so certified by participants in the Intransa StorAlliance program.

"Innovative next generation products are made possible with the Intransa Sharable Security Platform," said Brad Stephenson, vice president, physical security group, Diebold, Incorporated, an Intransa StorPartner, headquartered in Canton, Ohio. "Our customers will benefit from this cost-effective approach."

"Managing and installing the converged global physical security system of the future will bring many opportunities to leverage the IT infrastructure, which will bring real ROI and a lower TCO for the enterprise," said James Connor, Principal, N2N Secure. "The one area which traditional IT solutions find themselves in real difficulty is video storage."

Connor continued: "What I find exciting about this technology is that Intransa is ready to exist within these IT environments. Intransa will improve the performance, reliability and availability of the video storage solution, all while lowering the initial and long term investment costs of storage."

The Intransa Sharable Security Platform allows physical security vendors to quickly set up and run their software applications, regardless of type, in an open, expandable and high performance IP-based environment without requiring proprietary hardware. For the security practitioner, that means that the applications they buy are no longer captive to the limits of the proprietary, closed systems that have been the mainstay of the physical security industry. Instead, they get access to proven best-of-breed vendor products, as well as new, up and coming applications that can now leverage a standard, open and scalable IP-based environment for compute and storage requirements.

The Intransa Sharable Security Platform also has the major strength of supporting not just video surveillance products, but also any software-based application that a security practitioner might require. This can simplify support and administration, while increasing reliability and greatly reducing overall security system cost.

"The ISSP is an integration platform that takes advantage of the shared, scalable, and simple external IP storage offered by Intransa," said Alan Rowe, CTO, Intransa. "Physical security software applications will be able to run in a server-less manner for computing and storage requirements, leveraging the underlying open, IP based Intransa storage. This has tremendous benefit for security practitioners and for physical security vendors, with a stable, dependable and highly scalable environment in which to offer solutions."

In an upcoming industry report, IPVS Magazine Labs found Intransa shared, external IP storage to be the most scalable, highest performing and only fully security-friendly storage solution in the physical security industry. Ideal as an application layer, Intransa's standards-based shared, external IP storage is the most scalable in the industry, supporting as little as 2TB (terabytes) of RAID protected, hot-swap disk drives for 30 days of average video recording and databases, and a handful of cameras and DVRs.

"Intransa also provides a much needed migration path toward a converged solution with its ability to connect to traditional DVRs and NVRs thereby giving the customer the ability to leverage their existing video solutions, while preparing for the future converged security ecosystem," stated Connor. "Why anyone would spend more for traditional drives and severs just to get less for their video storage dollar is mystery."

The Intransa storage system can grow to a massive 1,500TB of capacity for months or years of retention, the most extensive in the physical security industry. To take advantage of that unmatched retention capacity, Intransa shared, external IP storage can grow from about 200 MB/second to an unmatched 3,000 MB/second system throughput. This mix of scalable IP storage capacity and performance is key to the ISSP, since one or multiple applications can use the platform environment without constraint. Intransa's strict adherence to industry standards, such as IP and the IT-proven advanced RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) support delivered in each Intransa product ensures that physical security applications have the most reliable platform on which to integrate their applications.

"Today's CIOs and IT departments are taking a close look at a systems power consumption," said Bernard. "The Intransa Sharable Security Platform sets a high standard for Green computing should make it a welcome element in any corporate systems environment."

Intransa is a member and sponsor of The Green Grid as well as a founding member of the Storage Networking Industry Associations' Green Initiative, key organizations leading the effort for Green IT. The company and its employees are also supporters and members of the leading physical security industry groups, including the Security Industry Association and ASIS International, demonstrating its commitment to the convergence of security and IT, and the benefits to the industry overall.

Intransa's shared external IP storage systems are offered by leading integrators around the world as part of the StorPartner Security Integrator program and are on display with eleven Intransa StorAlliance partners at ASIS. All have completed Intransa's Security-Grade IP Video Storage certification.