Bud Broomhead is the chief executive officer at Intransa, San Jose, Calif. He has two decades of executive experience in the technology sector, leading innovative teams with privately-held startups, mid-range and large enterprises. He most recently was at Topio, Inc. through the acquisition by Network Appliance. Earlier, he served as CEO and co-founder of startup IRL Networks after successfully leading new business ventures, network storage at Sun Microsystems where he targeted new lines of business through mergers and acquisitions.

Security Magazine: Give security leaders a thumbnail of Intransa, its startup, focus and technology strengths.
Broomhead: Intransa is a global leader of scalable, network-centric IP storage solutions. Our affordable storage is easy to install and manage, deployable with virtually all physical security hardware and software solutions. So clearly we are in the video surveillance security market, specifically the management of the data and retention of the data. We are expert in data requirements of the applications and how they interact with infrastructure. Our technology optimizes at the I/O level. We have built a graphical user interface or GUI that is targeted for security people so they don’t have to become IT experts.

We have built a set of features – new video management software to address the security video market. Convergence is only taking the application and moving to IT structures – but what we do is bring techniques and technologies to security video to make it better. The physical security industry can now take advantage of this scalable storage expertise, thanks to the growing convergence with the best information technology.


Security Magazine: What are the 3Rs that you continue to talk about?
Broomhead: It’s all about delivering the 3Rs -- Retention, Resolution & Reliability -- for any customer need, be it storage for a single DVR or consolidating the output from thousands of IP cameras supporting IP installations and NVRs. The bottom line is that the 3Rs make security video better. It strikes me as a bit odd that when security executives look for a certain piece of video, they sometimes cannot find it. Security should have the tools at hand to make it available when and where needed.

By focusing in on this, we have relationship with others – talk to their interfaces.

For example, Intransa forms technology partnerships with leading independent software and hardware vendors through our StorAlliance Technology Partner program.

StorAlliance provides the framework and resources to do integration testing with our scalable IP storage solutions for products from vendors in the information technology, physical security, industrial video, medical imaging, document imaging, video content distribution and other related industries.


Security Magazine: What about thinking outside the DVR?
Broomhead: For security video, think of a shared platform. Our storage is something that sits outside the DVR. You can put it in place even in new construction that uses our platform for the recording. Think of it from a resource sharing standpoint. You give each DVR what it needs and no more. This shared model avoids over provisioning. It’s more economical. When you look at people looking at their environment, more with IP technologies, disk drives in DVRs is not really investing in the future. Shared storage is also a migration path to NVRs and IP.


Security Magazine: What are the keys for end-users to future proof their security video systems?
Broomhead: For smart DVR upgrades, the approach enables security practitioners to record more video, increase retention periods, improve video quality and eliminate lost video. Best of all, you can continue to leverage your investment in existing DVRs, cameras and infrastructure for less than the pricing of adding another DVR. You also get all the benefits of shared, external and smart IP storage, and have a great platform to add NVRs when needed, too.

When it comes to smart scalable IP video surveillance, these solutions can deliver the 3Rs at a fraction of the price of legacy security video storage solutions. It’s risk-free integration with IP cameras, readers and infrastructure supporting access control, life safety, biometrics, authentication, video management systems, video analytics and other solutions.


Security Magazine: How do system integrators work with you and your technology?
Broomhead: There is a growing community of security integrators who have customer success and best-of-breed quality. These integrators have the ability to sell into the whole IP environment. When connecting with IT, talk storage options and ask for their advice, too.

A case in point, we recently announced a sales alliance with Convergint Technologies, a North American systems integrator of electronic security, fire alarm, life safety and building automation systems. With Convergint‘s specialization in providing best-of-breed building system technologies that meet customer needs, IP storage is a great addition to its product portfolio.