Sam Grinter, market analyst at IMS Research, said, "This crossover is being driven by a number of factors, including the continued evolution from analog to digital security cameras and the use of higher-resolution cameras, which generate more data per camera than a standard analog security camera."

External storage platforms offer significant advantages over their internal storage equivalents in processing and storing much larger amounts of data compared to DVRs, NVRs, and other internal storage platforms. This is a result of the scalability of external storage platforms, meaning that a greater number of hard disk drives (HDDs) can be installed within the device, creating a much larger data storage capacity.
As a consequence of the increased use of external platforms, many IT vendors have seen their storage solutions strengthened for use in video surveillance applications. In recent years, vendors such as EMC, Pivot3, DDN, and HP, among others, have seen an increase in their market share for video surveillance storage solutions.

Grinter continues: “For new IT providers looking to enter the market, it’s important to establish strong partnerships in the video surveillance sector. Many successful IT providers have partnered with VMS providers and built strong lists of value-added resellers and integrators who understand their storage solutions.”
This shift from internal networking to external storage platforms is one of the key findings of the recently published report, “World Market for Enterprise and IP Storage Used for Video Surveillance - 2012 Edition.” This report presents nine product types, ten end-user industries, and 30 countries, in terms of revenue and storage capacity from 2010 to 2016.

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