IP Security is Already Here in Pakistan

CSO Pakistan recently sat down with Wateen’s Adil Mir, Manager Value Added Services at Wateen, to talk about the state of IP Security in Pakistan. While security products such as CCTV have been in use by the corporate and government sector, the switch to IP hasn’t been as mainstream – at least not yet. Adil Mir tells you a tale of the evolution of IP and its link with security.

According to Adil, broadband has become more accessible in the last few years since the introduction of DSL. “The affordability factor has also come in, as the prices have been slashed internationally benefitting the consumer level,” says Adil. “Previously, broadband was only in use at the corporate level as it was only the large multinationals and banks that could afford having the DSL broadband connections,” he goes on. But the landscape changed when new companies came in with affordable cable connectivity and kicked the broadband revolution into hyper drive.

Wateen’s deployment of WiMAX certainly helped with internet adoption. In terms of broadband connectivity, various platforms are being utilized for various media. For the mobile platform, there is GPRS, EDGE and the forthcoming 3G. “If you compare WiMAX with CDMA and other technologies, WiMAX is more reliable,” explains Adil. “Through WiMAX, we can provide you over 2Mbps connectivity, and that is quite a bit given that it is through the wireless platform,” Adil goes on.

The Solutions
There are a number of surveillance solutions that companies are providing to both the corporate and consumer segments.”

There are two types of solution that Wateen provides: corporate solutions and consumer solutions. “Corporate solutions are for large organizations including governments etc.,” Adil elaborates. “The solution is customized according to customer’s needs.” “The other solutions are for the consumer side; there is one product we coming up with in next few months through which normal consumers will be able to take advantage of a surveillance solution and all that they would need would be a internet connection and a camera,” he goes on. Wateen will take care of the storage and data recovery.

In current situation, when there is much uncertainty economically, politically and socially, what Wateen is trying to show its customers is that they do not need just one product to solve their problems. “One product may be able to prevent an incident or disaster, but it might not be able to give them the entire solution,” Adil explains. “What we try to do is, give them the security or the assurance that the situation we are into can be resolved through multi-faceted solutions.” Adil sites the example of disaster management for corporate entities. “They have to plan to have good resources, back up plans in case the master plan fails, but if you see the holistic security situation, it would certainly be a massive problem solver,” he says.

IP It
Once you have access to a dynamic enterprise, there is virtually nothing that you can’t achieve on it. Surveillance and security has changed drastically over the past few years. In addition to the Information Security that your company needs to be careful about, there is just as much concern about the physical well being of your employees and team members. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the same companies that deployed your network, would also be the same vendors you would deal with when planning and layout out your IP-surveillance.

Security or surveillance equipment which you will over your network will end up being a lot more cost effective than the traditional equipment. In fact, wireless surveillance is one the fastest growing applications in the world. The corporate sector and government departments are constantly making the transition from old to new. With increasing populations and expanding businesses, the need for security and vigilance continues to grow, which needs to be matched with the increased use of wireless transmission of IP video surveillance along with traditional analog wireless video transmission equipment.

The age-old concept of CCTV has evolved towards video-over-IP formats for networked video surveillance and digital recording. A lot of companies, even in Pakistan, are beginning to offer solutions that match these needs. Along with surveillance, you also have the need to capture and store images, which need high capacity storage devices, high speed networks to be able to remotely record the images, and solutions which enable intelligent archiving of such information.

File formats such as Mpeg2, Mpeg4 or still frames known as Mjpeg, can be transmitted through your internet connectivity to be stored on the storage server. More efficient file formats can be ripped through the use of encoders which are available at low or no cost.

But to make all this happen, you don’t have to get rid of your already-existing CCTV equipment which you may have already bought – well, at least not all of it. If you are looking to upgrade your analog security network into a digital one, you don’t have to spend millions. With IP-Surveillance technology, the video server and network server represent the next level of improvement by connecting existing cameras to the network with a video server and then storing the images on the network server.

A digital setup obviously has its own advantages. The ease of use, searchable, simulcast record and playback and a more reliable

The biggest advantage in connecting analog cameras to your network is that you can now see the surveillance images from any computer on the network. If you have internet access, you can connect securely to any camera regardless of your physical location. By using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or your company intranet, you can manage password protected access to images from the surveillance system.  Similar to how secure payment works over the net, images and information can be kept secure and viewed only by approved personnel.

Going digital means no more investment in time-lapse video equipment, tapes. Thanks to remote accessibility, smart apps for archiving and searching and proactive image distribution, you can reduce your maintenance costs. As you continue to use the system and yield results, the total cost of ownership will continue to decrease over the long run.