Those of us up to our necks in IT sometimes forget that technology can be hard for other people to understand. This fact becomes painfully apparent on the rare occasions I try to hold conversations about computers or the internet with my parents.

Like Mum and Dad, the security industry seems more comfortable with the old ways of doing things. Analogue CCTV systems have been installed in almost every corner of the UK, bringing bumper profits to the small army of security firms responsible for deploying and operating them.

However, the inexorable advance of IP and digital technology looks set to change the way many firms use video security technology.
It is possible, though not always practical, to feed digital high-resolution 640x480 video streams from almost any location via broadband. Meanwhile, bigger hard disks in servers and storage arrays mean the cost of storing digital video footage is coming down.

Quality of service (QoS) and traffic prioritisation features in switches and routers are able to guarantee real-time transmission in most cases, and there is now a wide range of suitable network cameras available at reasonable cost from many manufacturers.
All of which means that responsibility for video surveillance could actually be passed to the IT department in many cases, leading to potential cost savings via consolidation in the number of security operatives on the payroll.

At the end of the day, it may come down to a decision about who the average organisation trusts to handle surveillance more – its own IT department or an ex-policeman. Tough choice.