Toshiba Launches New Video Surveillance HDDs

The market for video surveillance solutions is growing by leaps and bounds as both governments and businesses keep a sharper eye on their facilities and the people surrounding them. Toshiba’s answer to this growing demand for video storage is its new line of 3.5-inch, 7,200 RPM hard disk drives (HDDs) that top out at 10 terabytes (TB).

Designed for 24/7 video capture and streaming applications, the hard drive maker is betting that its new MD06ACA-V series SATA drives will soon land in surveillance network video recorders (NVR), surveillance digital video recorders (SDVR) and hybrid SDVR implementations. Compared to their predecessors (MD04ABA-V series), the new drives support sustained transfer rates of up to 237 megabytes (MB) per second, a 58 percent increase, and up to 64 high-definition camera streams.

In addition to the 10TB model, Toshiba’s MD06ACA-V series HDDs are available in 6TB and 8TB sizes.

“Our third generation surveillance HDD line-up provides the capacity, performance and reliability needed for today’s higher resolution surveillance video streams and longer content retention requirements,” said Scott Wright, director of HDD Product Marketing at Toshiba America Electronic Components, in a Nov. 27 announcement. “The new Toshiba models include RV [rotational vibration] compensation technology for optimal performance in multi-bay configurations, and provide excellent reliability with a mean time to failure of one million hours utilizing a conventional mechanical design.”

Toshiba isn’t the only hard drive vendor targeting the space.

In October, Seagate unveiled its SkyHawk AI HDD, made specifically for video surveillance systems that use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the footage they capture. Available in 8TB and 10TB capacities, the drives ship with the company’s ImagePerfect AI firmware, which promises steady NVR video capture without dropping frames “while simultaneously facilitating AI-enabled NVR analytics,” claimed Seagate.

The new HDDs arrive amid a boom in the market for video surveillance systems.

Increased demand for more automated and intelligent physical security solutions will drive over $6.4 billion in spending on video surveillance solutions in the U.S. until 2023, predicted Frost & Sullivan. American municipalities, retail stores, critical infrastructure sites and commercial facilities are all snapping up equipment and services that help security personnel detect and respond to potential incidents faster.

Dropping prices on video storage hardware and surveillance cameras are boosting the market, noted the market research and consulting firm. The advent of intelligent video analytics and cloud-enabled solutions is also driving demand.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Enterprise Storage Forum. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.