Launched in June 2015, the smart city mission with 100 cities in its purview has made significant progress, having completed 7,380 out of 8,075 projects, with an investment of ₹1,47,704 crore. The initiative is essentially the promotion and adoption of technology within a city’s core infrastructure to increase the quality of life for its citizens. Solutions that are part of this mission include crime monitoring, smart parking, intelligent traffic management, and integrated multi-modal transport, to name a few examples.
For each of these services to be successful, close video monitoring is required. Intelligent video systems (IVS), enhanced by AI, analytics and automation, are nowadays not only addressing heightened security issues and keeping people safe but also have great potential in developing smart cities and providing more advanced services across the country. As a result, research shows that the video surveillance market in India is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$ 5,260.3 million by 2030.
The following are 5 essential reasons why 24/7 surveillance in the sSmart cCities initiative requires purpose-designed storage like Western Digital’s WD Purple and WD Purple Pro drives:
1. Continuous Video Recording Demands Storage Built for Non-Stop, High-Write Workloads: The very nature of 24/7 surveillance within smart cities generates an immense and constant stream of video data. Standard storage drives are not engineered to handle this relentless high-write workload, leading to potential performance bottlenecks and data loss. Purpose-built storage is specifically designed for this continuous data influx, ensuring smooth and reliable recording crucial for security applications across urban landscapes.
2. Purpose-Built Smart Video Storage Provides Enhanced Endurance and Reliability: The high-speed operational pace of 24/7 surveillance in a city-scale network, places extremely heavy loads on storage devices. Contrary to consumer-grade or even enterprise-level drives, purpose-built storage smart video is designed with increased durability and reliability as key considerations for write-heavy workloads. Such consistency is essential for sustained surveillance and upholding the integrity of critical security video over the long term in the smart city infrastructure.
3. Surveillance-Ready with AllFrame AI Technology: Products such as WD Purple and WD Purple Pro drives, with AllFrame technology, are designed specifically for the requirements of round-the-clock surveillance. The technology reduces frame loss, enhances playback quality, and provides smooth recording from up to 64 single-stream cameras plus 32 AI streams at once.
4. Scalable Storage is Key as Surveillance Spreads Across Locations or Camera Zones: As smart city projects mature and the surveillance network moves to cover more territory, public areas, and critical infrastructure, storage solutions that offer more than just capacity become essential. Capacity remains important, but what sets purpose-built storage apart is its ability to scale intelligently and efficiently, integrate seamlessly with compatible surveillance systems, and ensure consistent performance across diverse environments. These will offer flexibility to add capacity incrementally, making room for the increased amount of data created by an expanding base of cameras and sensors throughout the city.
5. Data Retention Policies Require Trustworthy Long-Term Storage: Surveillance in smart cities frequently demands compliance with certain data retention policies for legal and investigative reasons. Storage solutions specifically designed for long-term reliability are built to ensure that critical video evidence is available and not corrupted for the necessary time period, a critical component of ensuring security and accountability within the urban environment.
Urbanization is a pressing issue today, and smart cities offer solutions to the challenges posed by rapid population growth and urban expansion. With trusted surveillance storage, the experience and infrastructure gained under this mission will continue to influence the development of smarter, safer and resilient Indian cities over the coming years.
Attributed to Owais Mohammed, Director Sales, MEA & India, Western Digital
