“Video data has a huge impact on the safety and security of our staff and prisoners. People’s lives are at stake in extreme cases. Therefore, it’s hugely important that there are safeguards around how the data is stored and secured. HPE and Scality provide us with assurance that those safeguards are in place and that they will work.”

George Jackson
Head of ICT, Irish Prison Service

Irish Prison Service improves security with Scality

Multi-petabytes of storage help ensure the safety and security of inmates and staff

The Irish Prison Service system’s mission is, first and foremost, to provide safe and secure custody. For upholding the safety and security of prisoners and staff alike, video surveillance is a mission-critical tool.

Across Ireland’s 12 prison facilities, approximately 5,000 cameras operate 24/7/365. Video footage of incidents must be stored for no less than precisely four years and one day — after that time, it may only be deleted if the case has been investigated and resolved.

With lives literally on the line, reliable preservation of the prisons’ surveillance data is vital.

The Challenge

For the past decade, incident footage had been stored on a traditional storage array. None of that data had ever been deleted because the service lacked the visibility and a technical process for secure, systematic deletion.

With the storage array running out of capacity and file sizes skyrocketing due to recently installed high-definition cameras, the need for a new storage solution was evident.

“We clearly needed to upgrade our storage infrastructure with a solution that was more scalable, but also provide a method of deleting video to keep our storage levels more manageable from both a capacity and cost perspective.”

George Jackson
Head of ICT, Irish Prison Service

The Solution

Non-negotiables for the long-term storage of this sensitive video data included scalability, security, reliability and durability. But easy, efficient and transparent administration of that data in accordance with law and policy was also crucial.

For Irish Prison Service, an intelligent end-to-end solution from HPE Apollo 4000 systems, CTERA Portal and Scality RING is delivering on all counts.

“We have confidence in the solution HPE and Scality have brought. It does what it says on the tin. That’s a huge thing for us. If there is an incident, it’s highly important that the solution works and is reliable.”

George Jackson
Head of ICT, Irish Prison Service

Scality received the SDC Award for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Project of the Year 2020 in recognition of their work on this project.