About the Customer
Surrey County Council operates dedicated, purpose built, state of the art Data Centres which provide secure hosting space, application and infrastructure services to users across the council’s internal business teams and partners, as well as external partnerships for both public and private sector clients. The Data Centres are designed to provide a high level of security with certification for ISO27001, NHS Network (N3) and Public Services Network (PSN). They include a number of features to protect them from a wide range of threats and provide a layered approach to security which is planned as a single entity
The Challenge
Due to the sensitive nature, the Data Centres are monitored at all times and CCTV is used throughout the facility to cover all entrances and exits, the secure areas as well as the exterior of the facilities. The security camera images are recorded for the purpose of security monitoring, safety and registration of misconduct. These systems are considered an essential part of the Data Centre security.
The existing CCTV systems were analogue based and had reached end of life as the suppliers either no longer exist or no longer support the hardware and software. Equipment failures were common and becoming increasingly expensive to fix as the availability of parts became more challenging.
These analogue systems have become outdated as IP-based components have become more widely available. While analogue systems have a cost advantage in small deployments (sixteen cameras or less), when larger number of cameras are deployed, IP-based systems become more cost-effective initially and have a lower ongoing total cost of ownership. IP-based video surveillance systems, especially the end-node (the IP camera), have several operational and technological advantages over older analogue systems.
The Solution
To address these requirements, the Councils Critical Facilities Team chose to replace the legacy CCTV systems at both the Primary and Secondary data centres with new digital CCTV systems from Hikvision, an industry leader in digital surveillance technology.
Our technology partner 2Teck, a professional mechanical and electrical company based in the south of the UK, successfully delivered the installation over a 4 week period.
The Benefits
The new system provides superior quality video recordings and coverage of the whole facility, both inside and out. The system has increased storage capacity which allows the video recordings to be retained for up to 90 days. The system also includes advance PTZ cameras which are able to track people and vehicles moving around the external areas of the site.