RE: Surveillance Videos and Security Cameras on the System i ? ? ? ? ?

In the perfect world;-) The iSeries will host the data base with the
configurations, user access, and captured video. A SAN will hold the
actual video files. (Cheapest storage is usually a SAN.) Server
application to server up the video feeds can be on any HTTP server of
your choice. (Lets see separate database, application, and storage
servers. What fun to manage.) I prefer to put it all on one box with a
NIC for the video capture subnet and a NIC for the live feeds to the
video monitoring / display stations, and a third NIC for the rest of the
server users if necessary.

Now let's look at cost, If you have the capacity on your iSeries to hold
the video files, back them up, add the necessary NIC's, you just have
the software cost. Compare that to a new server with 3 NICs, Tape
backup, Storage, DB license, Backup software license, OS license, cost
to administer a new server, and the cheaper, ok less expensive,
application. What does cost more in the long run. Even if I have to
add an expansion tower for the IOP/NIC and additional Disk, the cost may
come close to the same. The ongoing cost may be less. Which is more
secure, more stable, and has better support? Only you can answer.

Chris Bipes
Director of Information Services
CrossCheck, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon ODonnell
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 7:46 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Surveillance Videos and Security Cameras on the System i ?
? ? ? ?

So....that was kind of my whole point. Other than the database
security/stability the iSeries has to offer (which is great, btw), what
benefit is there to hosting a video surveillance system on an iSeries?
Or
is that the benefit right there?

I guess I'm trying to put myself in the mindset of imagining that I was
a
consultant for a company and they came to me and asked whether they
should
purchase a $6K Video Surveillance software package that would be hosted
on
and run from, their Win2003 Server( and which, by the way, they could
still
access from their green screen programs quite easily via sockets or even
runrmtcmd), or should they go with the iSeries vendor who will sell them
a
$20K video Surveillance System that will use the iSeries as the database
engine and they would then still need that Win2003 Server to interface
with
the cameras and to view the videos.

I will push the iSeries solutions every single time when I believe that
is
the best solution, which is almost always for the people I deal with,
but
come on...there are times when you have to put down the iSeries pom-poms
and
introduce a little reality into the conversation and go with the
solution
that makes the most sense to you.