Video security systems generate a lot of recorded data. Organizations not only need efficient ways to store and access that video but also need confidence in the continuity and availability of that data and other critical VMS services.
In this article, you will learn how Tiger Surveillance, one of our valued technology partners, can protect and extend XProtect video storage and dramatically increase resilience with two integrations.
Tiger Surveillance has two products that integrate with XProtect to help customers manage growing video storage and retention requirements while maintaining continuity and availability across the XProtect infrastructure. Both integrations are designed to work with any license tier of XProtect.
- Surveillance Bridge extends how XProtect recordings can be stored, retained and protected. It allows organizations to move or replicate recordings beyond local storage to options such as cloud object storage, remote data centers, NAS or even LTO tape while keeping the video accessible through XProtect.
- Surveillance HA adds real-time resilience to XProtect Recording Servers and management infrastructure. It is designed to help maintain recording continuity and access to critical XProtect services during planned maintenance, upgrades or unexpected server outages.
Check out Tiger Surveillance’s overview of these plug-ins work with XProtect here.
To understand what Surveillance Bridge adds to XProtect, it helps to first look at how XProtect manages recordings on its own.
XProtect already supports a tiered storage architecture. Recent recordings can remain in the media database, while older recordings can be moved to file-based archive storage for longer-term retention. This allows XProtect customers to separate short-term recording storage from longer-term archive storage.
Surveillance Bridge extends this architecture by giving XProtect access to additional storage options and locations. It allows XProtect recordings to be moved or replicated to options such as cloud object storage, remote data centers, NAS or LTO tape while keeping that footage connected and always accessible through XProtect.
It does this through a native plug-in for XProtect that works with the storage used by XProtect Recording Servers. Using settings that can be configured to match an organization’s storage and retention needs, Surveillance Bridge monitors recordings and automatically manages when data is replicated or moved to another storage tier. This is referred to as continuous data protection and differs greatly from a simple backup.
The key for XProtect operators is that expanding the storage architecture does not require changing how they access recorded video. When footage stored remotely is needed, Surveillance Bridge makes it instantly available through XProtect. Operators can continue navigating the XProtect timeline and play back recordings without switching to a separate archive or retrieval application. For XProtect customers, this extends the existing storage architecture to a wider range of storage options while helping support longer retention periods, off-site data protection and continued growth in the amount of video the system needs to manage.
One example of how Surveillance Bridge can extend XProtect storage is by enabling organizations to use Amazon S3 for short and longer-term video retention.
XProtect uses file-based storage for its media database and archives. Amazon S3, however, is highly resilient object storage rather than a traditional file system. Therefore, XProtect cannot use S3 directly without using Surveillance Bridge.
In this configuration, recent recordings can remain on higher-performance storage connected to the XProtect Recording Server, while Surveillance Bridge manages when older video is moved to S3 based on settings configured for the deployment. For this workflow, Surveillance Bridge manages the replication and movement of recordings rather than using the native XProtect archiving function. Any desired data is immediately replicated to S3 for data protection and disaster recovery. Older video can also transition to lower-cost S3 storage classes, including S3 Glacier tiers, based on how long recordings need to be retained and how frequently they are expected to be accessed.
Even after recordings move to S3, they remain instantly accessible through XProtect. When older footage is needed, Surveillance Bridge makes it available to the system without requiring operators to manage a separate cloud archive. This helps organizations balance storage performance, capacity and cost as retention requirements grow.
This storage model can support both XProtect deployments running entirely in AWS and hybrid environments where XProtect infrastructure remains on premises while cloud storage provides disaster recovery and also extends retention.
A real-world example from the City of Fishers
The City of Fishers, Indiana, used this type of hybrid approach as its camera count and long-term storage requirements grew. The city integrated its existing XProtect system with AWS through Surveillance Bridge, keeping 10 days of recorded video on-site before moving older recordings to AWS for archiving.
This approach allowed Fishers to expand its video storage without continuing to grow its on-premises storage infrastructure at the same rate. The city reported reduced hardware and storage costs along with a more predictable operating model as its video needs continued to grow.
While XProtect already includes options for protecting system availability in some variants, Surveillance HA gives XProtect customers another high-availability approach. XProtect Expert and XProtect Corporate support failover Recording Servers, and customers can also add XProtect Management Server Failover when additional protection for management services is required. Rather than replacing the resilience capabilities available in XProtect, Surveillance HA has the advanced capability to protect every frame of recorded video while protecting video (evidence) from before and after an outage.
XProtect Expert and XProtect Corporate support failover Recording Servers using hot or cold standby configurations. In both cases, a failover server can take over recording tasks if a Recording Server becomes unavailable. A hot standby is dedicated to a specific Recording Server and is already running for faster takeover, while a cold standby can provide failover coverage for multiple Recording Servers but starts the failover service when it is needed.
Surveillance HA takes a different approach by using active-active clustering for XProtect Recording Servers. Both servers in the pair record simultaneously rather than keeping one in standby. If one server becomes unavailable, the paired server is already recording and can continue without requiring cameras to be manually reassigned. This is a key feature in preserving video evidence from before an event – which can often be the difference in supporting legal claims in the event of a disaster.
Surveillance HA also uses automatic backfill between the paired servers. When a server returns to operation, recordings from the other server can be used to restore the timeline across the pair. Once completed, XProtect ‘sees’ all video and a complete timeline as if nothing has happened.
This active-active configuration also supports planned maintenance, patching and upgrades. One server can be taken offline while its paired server continues recording, helping organizations maintain video coverage while work is performed on the XProtect infrastructure. At any time, operators can also switch desired cameras to verify data is streaming to either recording location or data center.
For XProtect customers with demanding recording continuity requirements, Surveillance HA offers a different architecture from the standby-based failover available natively in XProtect.
XProtect Expert and XProtect Corporate customers can add the separately licensed XProtect Management Server Failover to protect critical management services. It uses a two-node configuration to provide failover for the XProtect Management Server, Event Server and Log Server. When SQL Server is included in the failover configuration, its data is also replicated so the secondary environment can take over with the system information it needs.
Surveillance HA provides another approach to protecting XProtect management services. It uses an active-passive configuration with SQL replication, where a standby environment remains synchronized with the primary environment and can take over when needed. Like XProtect Management Server Failover, it can protect the Management Server, Event Server, Log Server and associated SQL Server. However, Tiger also includes the XProtect Mobile Server within its Management Server HA coverage.
This can extend high availability to mobile and web access alongside the core XProtect management services. Surveillance HA can also combine this management protection with its active-active Recording Server capabilities, allowing organizations to apply one HA solution across both recording and management infrastructure.
Surveillance Bridge and Surveillance HA address different parts of the XProtect infrastructure, so organizations can use either integration independently or combine them based on their requirements. Surveillance Bridge adds true disaster recovery and extends how XProtect recordings can be stored, retained and protected, while Surveillance HA adds high-availability zero-loss options for the recording servers and management services that keep the VMS operating.
Used together, the integrations can help organizations address both the availability of their XProtect infrastructure and the long-term protection and retention of the video it manages, while keeping XProtect at the center of video operations.
Want to explore how Tiger Surveillance integrations could extend your XProtect deployment? Contact us to discuss your storage, retention and resilience requirements.
