Minnesota City Selects Pivot3 Storage Solution For Video System Expansion

  • Mar 28, 2011

The City of Maple Grove recently announced the selection of Pivot3 Scale-Out Application Platforms as the video surveillance storage solution for its networked video system expansion.

Maple Grove, located in the growing northwest region of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, replaced its analog video system with a network-based surveillance solution to improve the protection of residents and city employees, secure community events and future-proof overall security.

Pivot3 was selected for its high-availability infrastructure that met the city’s need to store large amounts of high-resolution video, while increasing retention times and meeting budget constraints. Pivot3 develops scale-out storage appliances that combine server and storage functions into a single platform. The innovative approach of hosting servers in an iSCSI SAN eliminates the need for standalone physical servers and therefore, reduces cooling, rack space and power costs by up to 40 percent.

“We have obtained huge operational improvements at a significant cost savings with the networked surveillance solution and Pivot3 is a critical part of the upgrade,” said Ed O’Donnell, Maple Grove’s network administrator. “By leveraging Pivot3 storage platforms, we are able to maximize video retention times and system reliability. Specifically, the system’s built-in application failure greatly reduces ongoing costs, including emergency support calls, over the lifecycle of the video system.”

The City of Maple Grove worked with longtime integrator partner Pro-Tec Design on the project, which also included the deployment of Axis Communications and Sony Security network cameras and Milestone XProtect video management software.

The combination of these industry-leading technologies with Pivot3 enables the city to centralize six independent systems into a single solution. Operators and local police can now access the city’s 170 cameras through a single interface to enable first responders to be more proactive in regards to both security and safety.

“Growing municipalities benefit greatly from the efficiencies provided by IP-based surveillance,” said Lee Caswell, founder and chief marketing officer with Pivot3. “The solution delivered to Maple Grove by Pro-Tec Design is a perfect example of how an innovative use of networked security can provide higher video quality, increased reliability and redundancy, and faster access to stored data.”


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