October 20, 2020 - securitylinkindia

Case Study

Genomics England Scales Up Genomic Sequencing with Quantum ActiveScale™ Object Storage

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 202408 mins

Genomics England has recently expanded their Quantum ActiveScale object storage solution as part of an integrated environment designed to store, protect and provide access to hundreds of petabytes of genomic data. The solution enabled the organization to scale up from sequencing 100,000 genomes to millions while improving data resilience, controlling costs, and avoiding IT complexity. The implementation supports Genomics England’s commitment to sequence the genomes of intensive care patients with COVID-19 and other people with the virus, and is an example of Quantum’s leadership in storing and managing unstructured data. Expanding Genomic work beyond the limits of an existing NAS system Genomics England was established in 2013 by the UK’s Department of Health & Social Care to support the 100,000 Genomes Project – a ground-breaking effort to sequence whole genomes from a vast number of patients with rare diseases and common cancers. In 2018, the project was significantly expanded. The new goal was to sequence up to five million genomes over five years. Unfortunately, the existing network-attached storage (NAS) system used for genomic data was not up to the task. The NAS, which held 21 PB of data, had reached its node-scaling limit. Genomics England needed something more scalable than existing NAS solutions – an infrastructure that could grow to hundreds of petabytes. A new solution also had to facilitate simple, flexible access to data by more than 3,000 researchers around the world. Selecting Quantum ActiveScale object storage as part of a single, integrated solution To explore new storage solutions, Genomics England consulted with Nephos Technologies, an independent UK-based data services organization, to design and implement a new storage solution. After evaluating several possibilities, the Nephos team designed a multi-faceted solution that incorporates a high-performance parallel file system from WekaIO, Mellanox® high-speed networking, and Quantum ActiveScale object storage. The solution creates a two-tier architecture that combines flash storage plus an object storage system, which serves as a long-term data lake repository. The two storage tiers – each of which can be scaled independently – present as a single hybrid storage environment. As a result, researchers have the flexibility to query data in a highly randomized fashion. Taking on new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic Within a few years of deploying the new storage environment, Genomics England needed to expand again. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 presented new, urgent challenges for the global medical-scientific community, and Genomics England was in a prime position to help better understand who is susceptible to the virus. The organization committed to sequencing the genomes of up to 20,000 intensive care patients with COVID-19 plus up to 15,000 people with the virus who are experiencing only mild symptoms. Around the same time that Genomics England was ramping up participation in COVID-19 research, the ActiveScale solution platform was acquired by Quantum. A Quantum team facilitated a smooth transition for Genomics England, which then expanded the object-storage environment from 40PB to more than 100PB. Scaling was seamless. The ActiveScale system’s architecture is underpinned by its RAID replacement technology, with intelligent, dynamic placement of erasure coded data. That placement of data eliminates the need for system rebalancing which can compromise performance and availability. Protecting vital Genomic data ActiveScale object storage protects data and provides the resiliency that Genomics England needs for its critical work. The organization takes advantage of the geo-distributed capability of ActiveScale, an added strength of Quantum’s RAID replacement technology that spreads data and parity across multiple nodes in the storage grid. With ActiveScale object storage, the organization distributes data across three data centers, for full data protection against a major disaster such as site-loss. Data can continue to be accessed for reading and writing at the remaining sites and withstand additional hardware failures offering 19x9s data durability. Gaining scalability while controlling costs and complexity With ActiveScale object storage, Genomics England no longer faces the capacity limits of its previous NAS solution. The organization has been able to expand its object storage to support more genomic analysis and even take on additional COVID-19 work without a major overhaul. In the future, Genomics England can easily integrate ActiveScale object storage with the Amazon S3-compliant public cloud environments for additional protection and scaling flexibility. The storage environment is also helping to reduce costs. According to Nephos, the Genomics England team decreased storage costs by 75 percent per genome compared with the previous environment. The organization is expected to reduce costs by 96 percent by 2023. Just as important, the Genomics England team has experienced these benefits without adding complexity. The new integrated storage environment makes it simple for researchers from around the world to store and access the genomic data they need for their work.

Case Study

Suburban Shopping Centre Deploys State-of-the-Art Facial Recognition System

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 2024010 mins

PMT Security recently deployed an advanced facial recognition (FR) solution and network of advanced IP cameras at a busy shopping centre in Sydney. The customer The shopping centre is a modern, medium-sized retail precinct, based in Western Sydney. It contains a Big W and a Woolworths as well as more than 50 specialty stores. The site also hosts several heritage-listed cottages, some of which date back to the1860s. The security mission at the centre is sensitive, due to the diverse nature of the buildings and a mixed demographic. The challenge The retail destination had been experiencing antisocial behaviour from a small group of repeat offenders, and frequently worked with police to remove them from the premises. Trespassing outside of retail hours was a big issue for the shopping centre, and several known drug offenders were evicted on a regular basis. Antisocial behaviour included individuals who frequently became a public nuisance by entering the centre whilst under the influence of illicit substances, shoplifting and disturbing the peace. “We could only use footage from our network of cameras to find these individuals after the event, which was time-consuming. Trespassing in particular was a real problem for a while, it was happening almost every day,” reported a spokesperson at the facility, “The shopping centre required a solution that would help them recognise individuals who were known to have transgressed in the past, and alert staff and authorities that they had entered the premises despite being banned. “We needed a more sophisticated system that could help us single out these individuals before they become a problem, and enable us to be proactive about clamping down on antisocial behaviour before it deterred our loyal customers.” The PMT Solution Management approached security service providers PMT Security about a holistic, best-of-breed solution. “We needed something that went beyond the footage provided by our network of analogue security cameras and the people sitting behind them watching monitors all day. The retail centre is a real destination for local shoppers who come for the diverse speciality stores, big retail and food chains and a wide variety of excellent cafes. We needed to create a safe environment that made our customers feel secure, so it was essential that we introduced cutting-edge technology to help us achieve that,” said the spokesperson. PMT Security worked with world-leading vendors to create a complete solution, which now enables this shopping centre to be proactive about security. At the centre of the technology stack, an open-platform video management software (VMS) solution from Milestone Systems powers a network of IP cameras, encoders and digital video recorders. One such integration is the shopping centre’s facial recognition (FR) solution, powered by VixVizion’s Imagus software. The FR solution allows security administrators to automate parts of the monitoring process, by setting alerts and profiles on the system for certain individuals. The FR solution will recognise these people as they enter the store, pulling up a record of their misdemeanours, and automatically alert security personnel. Further to this, the Imagus system also recognises and tracks their associates, to add a further layer of security to the network. “The Imagus FR solution uses Artificial Intelligence to pick out an individual in a crowded centre, then learn who they are known to enter the shops with. That way we are able to keep track of not just a noted person on the banned list, but any people that they associate with upon entering the premises, so we are able to stamp out further bad behaviour before it becomes a problem for our shoppers,” added their security manager. Fraser Larcombe of VixVizion explains further, “Facial Recognition technology can add benefits to security by not just identifying criminals, but also giving users the ability to look for unknown associates of that criminal, and finding people that may have been involved but weren’t originally known to the user. It empowers users to find links between suspected individuals and follow certain behaviours on a whole new level of investigation.” “Deployments like this are at the very forefront of today’s video technology, but also opens up the possibility of more complementary technologies being added in the future. An open platform allows for a huge amount of functionality to be built into a security solution, and as we see in this case, essentially future-proofs the premises and the business. They can add the latest technologies as they become available and therefore continue to offer their customers the very best retail experience moving forward,” said Brett Hansen, Country Manager, Milestone Systems. Larcombe from VixVizion went on to add, “Facial ‘verification’ can also help customers in say, a retail environment, by recognising a VIP shopper and creating a seamless experience. Imagine walking into your local retail bank branch to discuss a loan and finding all the paperwork ready for you at the desk, or walking into a coffee shop and using your face to get your regular order, with no waiting in line.” Managers also cited the ease-of-use as a big factor that is making life easier at the shopping centre. They said, “We have got a lot more cameras than we did before, they are placed all around the centre now which is much better than it was before. However, despite having more devices with more data being recorded, it is actually quicker and easier to monitor and administer the cameras than it was previously. We can put say, four or five cameras on the one save rather than doing each one individually, and we can now just put the times in, export the files and we are done. It really is easy – honestly, you could train a monkey to do it.” Return on investment The PMT Security solution has enabled the shopping centre’s security team to curb offensive behaviour and trespassing, making the security mission much more effective while saving the team a lot of time that was previously spent monitoring screens and manually inputting data. The number of individuals attempting to trespass…

Enhancing Physical Security Through System Unification

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 2024032 mins

While organizations look to incorporate video surveillance and access control systems that provide greater interoperability as part of their security strategy, the majority of security manufacturers have continued to provide disparate systems, with limited communication between systems. With the recent advancements in software technologies, and the ongoing partnerships between security manufacturers, integration has become a popular substitute for traditional interfacing. However, even integration has its limits. The answer can be found in a single software platform that can manage access control, intercom, intrusion, and video devices, while offering a unified interface to monitor the entire system. Such a system goes above and beyond the basic functionalities of interfacing and integration, while offering end-users an efficient, flexible and cost-effective option to system unification not available with highly customized and expensive solutions like PSIMs. Building Security Solutions That End Users Want Even today, with all the technologies available, the industry is struggling to fully succeed at building security solutions that fulfill the users’ true needs – a cohesive video and access control system that is efficient, non-proprietary, and cost effective. It is important to recognize that without these basic criteria, a unified video and access control system may not seem advantageous to customers and thus, not generate enough demand for manufacturers to justify developing such a product. Efficiency Gains Matter The priority of any security staff will be to spend time on performing their core tasks such as monitoring, investigating and responding to incidents to ensure the security of the organization. Their ability to perform these critical tasks should not be impeded by time spent managing technology. In other words, the security technologies they use should help them be more efficient and effective, while not slowing them down. In one of his articles, Rich Anderson, CTO of Razberi Technologies, and previously VP of Marketing for GE Security and VP of Enegineering for CASI-RUSCO, illustrates the common problem with today’s disparate systems with the following statement: “Access control systems in particular generate alarms for invalid badges, door-forced and door-held events. Those events need to be investigated, but the task of doing so with a standalone surveillance system is painful. Receive an alarm on one system, and your operator has to move to another completely different system to investigate. This surveillance system has a different user interface and so he/ she has to ‘switch gears.’ Then, which camera do you call up to view the scene? An experienced operator will know, but that ‘experience’ costs you a lot in terms of training.” Mixing and Matching Best-of Breed Technologies The PC industry has succeeded in building interoperable products. Anyone can buy a PC today, and down the line, add new hardware like a printer, web cam, gaming device, or even install a new hard drive that processes information twice as fast as the previous one. Almost anything can be done without changing the entire PC or operating system. However, the same cannot be said about, or achieved in the security industry. A user cannot simply decide to buy the latest high-tech wireless door controller and add it to an existing access control system. Or buy the latest and greatest IP cameras and connect them to a video management system (VMS) without first verifying that the specific model is supported. For these and many other reasons, the security industry is far behind the PC industry. In fact, it might never be possible to achieve what the PC industry has in terms of interoperability. Making a commitment to proprietary technology can be a costly decision. When a new technology emerges, the option to incorporate it becomes more of a question about whether or not to forego existing investments and start over from scratch with a new investment. On the other hand, having the ability to mix and match best-of-breed products from different manufacturers, and having the option to incorporate the latest advancements in technology into a security system ultimately provides more flexibility and the added assurance that your investment is future-proof. Managing Investments A solution that is entirely customized to fit with all existing business systems and infrastructure might be very efficient and attractive, but as with any customized approach it will likely be expensive as well. Take for example ERP systems (enterprise resource planning) deployed by many companies. An ERP system can be customized to adapt to virtually any business model and environment by specialized ERP system integrators. Although the cost of customizing such a system is very high, there is usually a significant productivity gain realized after deployment to justify this investment. In similar respects, investments in security departments and equipment are always considered an expense and it is unlikely that security systems could be adapted to every internal process. Since these systems rarely generate revenue, budgets are traditionally tightly controlled. Completely overhauling a system, regardless of the technology employed, is entirely dependent on budget availability and management’s buy-in. Often, even discussions of upgrading or replacing a system occur out of pure necessity (e.g., aging system or security flaw) and the process of sourcing and implementing a system could span months, if not, years. Therefore, it is crucial, more than any other factor, that the total cost of ownership of a cohesive video and access control system be justified. Integrated Systems With the recent advancements in technologies, and increased collaboration between manufacturers, integration has become a popular substitute for traditional interfacing. In information technology, systems integration is the process of linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally. Specifically in the security industry, the most popular integration methods involve network protocols and software development kits (SDK). Network protocols are very powerful as they support a mix of operating systems and allows you to manage your applications in real-time. However, integrating two systems through a network protocol requires more time than an SDK, or it may require a shared database between two systems. Network protocols are popular for edge-device integrations like IP cameras or door controllers but are even more commonly…

National

Array Networks is Recognized as the Top Three ADC Players in India, Reports IDC

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 202405 mins

Array Networks has recently secured third position in the application delivery controller (ADC) market as per IDC Ethernet Switch Tracker for Q2 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the world sending markets into an unforeseen turbulence when compared to the situation during Q1 2020. Despite these factors Array Networks has emerged as one of the leaders in the Indian ADC Market with its market share at 17.7%. “Array Networks has constantly maintained its position in the top three slots of the Indian ADC Market. The second quarter saw a huge change in dynamics where application delivery controller (ADC) took a back seat and focus was mainly placed on the security solutions and products to help organizations with remote working conditions. Despite this radical shift in the ADC market Array Networks has turned the disadvantage into an advantage and pushed in achieving the third position. This ranking by IDC is reinforcing the trust our customers have on our ADC products which are secure, scalable, agile, flexible and high performing,” said Shibu Paul, Vice President – International Sales at Array Networks. Array Networks has constantly maintained its position in the top three slots of the Indian ADC Market. The second quarter saw a huge change in dynamics where application delivery controller (ADC) took a back seat and focus was mainly placed on the security solutions and products to help organizations with remote working conditions. Despite this radical shift in the ADC market Array Networks has turned the disadvantage into an advantage and pushed in achieving the third position. This ranking by IDC is reinforcing the trust our customers have on our ADC products which are secure, scalable, agile, flexible and high performing Array’s ADC network infrastructure is not only affordable, but the consolidation of load balancing and server offloading capabilities make them more cost-effective and efficient. Array’s APV series solutions are enterprise-class application delivery controllers with the proven abil ity to load balance, accelerate, secure and optimize enterprise applications and servers. The APV series is available as physical/ dedicated appliances and as virtual APV appliances. Array’s ADCs are designed to meet or exceed technical requirements while remaining simple to manage, scalable to accommodate future growth, and cost effective for almost any business or other organization. APV series application delivery controllers can provide link load balancing, which helps ensure availability across multiple WAN connections. This year, Array had broached the subject of the ‘Make In India’ initiative where they would be producing networking and security products in their product manufacturing unit set up in Bengaluru. The company successfully maintained its dominance in BFSI, PSU and Government sectors. With the customers ranging from universities to the biggest manufacturing powerhouses to telcos to the largest bank, the company’s India unit is presently one of the fastest-growing units.

National

Forcepoint Recognised by Frost & Sullivan as the 2020 Indian Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Vendor Company of the Year

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 202404 mins

Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint announced that it has been recognised as the 2020 India DLP Vendor Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan. Forcepoint’s next-generation DLP is designed for the evolving nature of today’s cybersecurity landscape and uses a human-centric approach to ensure that protection is not the enemy of productivity. Forcepoint’s risk-adaptive data protection solutions automatically apply appropriate actions based on an individual’s risk level while reducing false positive alerts for the cybersecurity teams, thereby freeing up their time. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards are based on in-depth independent research that is presented to an elite panel of jury members to evaluate the contenders. This panel consists of some of the most prominent CIOs and CTOs from the Indian industry. Forcepoint took the number one industry rank in 2020 based on its excellence in several key areas, including technological advancements, customer satisfaction, and its visionary position in terms of macro market trends. Frost & Sullivan also takes revenue growth, portfolio diversity, and market penetration into account when awarding Company of the Year. Frost & Sullivan’s award recognises Forcepoint’s Dynamic Data Protection (DDP) as unique in the cybersecurity industry. DDP integrates behaviour-centric analytics with data protection tools, allowing cybersecurity teams to prioritise high-risk activities and automate data protection policies in near real-time, providing the highest security and workforce productivity. “The impeccable brand equity that Forcepoint has built in over the period of time by delivering DLP solutions that address today’s security needs makes it a vendor of choice for several large Indian brands,” said Rajarshi Dhar, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan. Surendra Singh, Senior Director and Country Manager at Forcepoint India, said, “Our endeavour has been to support enterprises in their digital transformation journeys through our unwavering focus on innovation and customer success. This recognition validates our behaviour-centric data protection approach, which places people and data at the centre of an organisation’s security design thinking and further solidifies our position as a leader in user and data protection. We remain committed to helping organisations leverage all the possibilities of a digital economy efficiently.” “In the near future, India is expected to have its own personal data protection law. Indian enterprises are going to need strong data protection mechanisms like human-centric data security to prevent data from misuse, unauthorised access, or loss, thereby protecting regulated, sensitive, and business-critical data,” added Singh. Forcepoint DLP offers a number of market-leading attributes that allow cybersecurity teams to: Control all their data with one single policy. Simplify compliance with pre-defined policies. Protect critical intellectual property with unsurpassed accuracy. Prevent data breaches automatically.

National

iValue in Association with Pixuate and Mobotix Unveil Combat COVID Solution in Government of Karnataka’s Elevate Program

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaOctober 20, 2020November 14, 202406 mins

iValue InfoSolutions, India’s premium technology enabler, Pixuate an artificial intelligence-based video analytics company and Mobotix a pioneer in the video security industry recently came together at Government of Karnataka’s Elevate Program held at Vidhana Soudha (Karnataka Vidhana Sabha building) and Bangalore Bio-innovation Centre to unveil a thermal solution, primarily to combat Covid-19. The innovations were unveiled by Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka Dr. Ashwathnarayan. “The thermal solution is developed by using Pixuate’s intelligent thermal analytics solutions which accurately identifies heat signatures of people and sends instant alerts for all instances of elevated temperature in humans with the help of the feed that comes from Mobotix’s M16B camera which is a stereo camera with optical as well as thermal lens that is used to detect the face, match the region of the face in thermal feed and record highest temperature of the forehead/eye region. This will aid in the current fight against Covid-19 and any such pandemic situations the world may face in the future,” said Venkatesh R, Co-Founder and Head – Enterprise Channel Management at iValue InfoSolutions. The solution unveiled is built around face recognition, automatic number plate recognition, gear detection that includes helmet, face mask, gloves, shoes, gesture recognition like hand waving, perimeter security like loitering, tailgating, unauthorized personnel and other relevant video analytics software programs. The thermal solution is primarily developed for situations like Covid-19 pandemic which can detect multiple people with elevated body temperature in a crowded and public environment like malls, bus stands, railway station which are a mass movement area. The software detects up to 30 people in a single frame for a temperature detection accuracy of +/-0.2 degree Celsius with ~1 seconds detection time. The other use of the thermal solution is to facilitate a contactless entry in office premises using facial recognition based biometric and cross verify the fever symptoms. This helps in social distance compliance, face recognition and mask detection. Pixuate which is an artificial intelligence based video analytics company headquartered at Bengaluru has been recognized and supported by the Technology Development Board, Government of India’s nodal agency and also awarded as a winner of Elevate Program by Government of Karnataka. Prathvi Palekar, Founder and CEO of Pixuate said, “For the post-COVID world, we launched thermal analytics that offers end to end automation for offices and public places to check compliance for COVID situation. This software is built on Pixuate’s proprietary deep learning based facial recognition engine and it can provide multiple analytics for a single camera feed such as temperature, mask check, social distance check and facial recognition. Along with thermal analytics, Pixuate also offers a suite of analytics for automation and surveillance intelligence such as contactless attendance, campus security and city surveillance. “We are excited to have signed up iValue as a distributor for SAARC and Africa region, and expand to the market beyond our current presence in India and UAE.” Mobotix who have a fleet of both indoor and outdoor cameras which are thermal, IP based video systems are a pioneer in the video security industry consider their video systems as computer lenses working intelligently and with embedded storage capacities with the German way of engineering and approaching things as this is appreciated as being particularly innovative and of high quality. Mobotix video systems have been optimized for remote applications and cloud-based technology because the cameras can reduce the bandwidth of the video by scaling the size and the frame rate. This new technology collaborated between iValue, Pixuate and Mobotix will help the governments across the world and organizations by giving them a chance to fight not just pandemic situation in the future but also help in fighting crime, aiding forensic investigations, find missing people among other benefits.