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New data storage TCO calculator for video surveillance industry

FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A., Inc. announced the release of an online calculator designed to help video surveillance (VS) industry professionals assess the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for long-term retention of video surveillance content.

Developed by storage economics experts Brad Johns Consulting, and sponsored by Fujifilm, the decision-making tool allows users to input the specifications of their system — such as number of cameras, camera type, frame rate, resolution, retention period requirements, motion percentage, and duration of time for keeping footage in “tier 1” HDD storage or “tier 2” tape storage. With these inputs, the calculator weighs the variables and projects a 5-year cost comparison of using HDD only, or a combination of HDD with an integrated LTO tape technology tier.

“Fujifilm is excited about this opportunity to help video surveillance professionals calculate the real savings they can achieve by implementing a second tier of storage based on tape with LTO technology,” said Rich Gadomski, head of Tape Evangelism, FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A., Inc., in a prepared statement. “Using the real world parameters of their surveillance systems, they can quickly and easily see the direct results on their bottom line.”

Establishing a strong cost savings case for integrating high-capacity tape (12TB LTO Generation 8 cartridges), users will typically find a 50 per cent potential annual savings compared to disk alone. Those savings increase with higher data volumes and longer retention times. Moving footage from disk to the tape tier sooner also drives costs down.

“In addition to lower cost, other quality and environmental factors are driving more surveillance industry professionals to consider data storage tape with LTO technology,” adds Gadomski. “Tape leads all storage media in reliability, with a bit error rate significantly better than disk.** And when compared to constantly-spinning HDDs, tape’s low energy consumption not only drives costs down, but reduces carbon footprint as well.”