The California-based security firm was founded in 2000 with a very simple business plan to “bridge the gap between physical security and IT”, and specializes in completely integrated security management systems that are technologically innovative and superior. With over 80 employees, the security firm deploys solutions for federal, state, and local governments, from national agencies to counties and municipalities down to their police stations. It also serves private sector firms in all major verticals.
Physical security has evolved over the years, going from traditional locks and keys to such sophisticated systems as biometrics and facial recognition. Video surveillance, for example, went from analog, coaxial systems that recorded to tape to network-based video recorders that digitally store surveillance footage for extended periods.
“Today, physical security demands integration with IT systems,” said by the director of technology, “Whereas maintenance departments used to be responsible for physical security, there are more IT-centric solutions operated by IT staff.”
As a result, the security firm’s success depends on developing, testing, and integrating software for its customers. Federal agencies, for example, want their users to deploy the same physical credentials to access both buildings and their computers. The company thus needs to consolidate the interfaces for disparate video systems, access control systems, and alarm systems. To this end, it maintains a VMware production environment with the storage performance to support over 100 VMs. Moreover, it needs to store video surveillance of its own facilities.
The securiy firm long relied on its legacy storage array to meet its production needs, but the solution was nearing its end-of-life. Moreover, while it was fine for storing video footage, the growing need for VMs required additional performance.
The secuiry firm replaced its aged storage array with a QSAN SAN Storage system, gaining 10GB ports over one gigabyte ports and support for flash drives. It installed 121.9TB SAS disks for 17TB of fast flash storage that are configured for RAID 5EE, allowing data protection and faster rebuilding of drives should one fail.
The QSAN SAN Storage is designed to withstand multiple component failures and achieve 99.999% availability. It features dual-active controllers that double the available host bandwidth and cache hit ratio, ensuring maximum throughput and utilization of system resources.
On its flash drives, the QSAN SAN Storage hosts 116 VMs, business apps like Exchange email, file servers, SQL servers, and the exacqVision video management system. Video surveillance is centrally stored on 11TB of HDDs on the QSAN device. The footage is from over 30 cameras at its HQ as well as surveillance from the firm’s other sites that arrive via VPNs.
We’re here to help you find the best, most cost‑effective solution for your business.
