solution centersASK THE ENGINEERSTap into New OpportunitiesIngram <strong>Micro</strong>’s Solution Centers in Buffalo, N.Y., and Santa Ana, Calif., are staffed by certifiedengineers on call to answer your questions. Here they explore IP video surveillance and <strong>Micro</strong>soft’scloud solutions.QAIP video surveillance is a growing opportunity, but where do we start?With today’s amazing processing power, building high-resolution, high-frame-rate IP video surveillancesolutions is easier and more cost-effective than ever. If you sell servers, storage and networking solutions,then IP video surveillance is a natural fit.Most customers expect high-resolution images because of HDTV. In most cases, the resolution of CCTV SDis not acceptable, and point-to-point coaxial cable runs make no sense in today’s world of Power-over-Ethernet(PoE). The price difference between CCTV and IP network cameras can be substantial, so you should view theproject from a total cost of ownership.To get started, set up a small-scale IP surveillance solution for your office using two to four cameras, a PoEswitch and a PC with video management software. Experiment with different camera locations, angles of view,camera heights, room sizes and lighting conditions. Also experiment with video motion detection and maskingto optimize when images will be triggered for recording. Compare the bandwidth and storage needed for H.264and MJPEG codecs. You should also compare the two codecs in different lighting levels and network conditionsto understand their pros and cons. You may find that storage is a limiting factor, unless you use a high-performancestorage-area network or direct-attached storage.Assess what you have learned. How long did the setup take? Were there any difficulties mounting the camerasto the ceiling and getting Ethernet cabling to the location? How good was the angle of view for the coverage youwanted to achieve? Did the motion detection and masking minimize false positives? Was the lighting and resolutiongood enough to identify people or license plates?—Marko Rogan, Solution Center Lead EngineerQAHow do <strong>Micro</strong>soft solutions plug into cloud and data center?<strong>Micro</strong>soft has many solutions for cloud, including public cloud, private cloud and Software-asa-Service(SaaS). <strong>Micro</strong>soft’s offering for public cloud is Windows Azure and SQL Azure, whichprovide hosting for web sites, virtual machines, custom applications and services, and data management.<strong>Micro</strong>soft Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 are used for a highly managed data center or privatecloud. They offer pooled resources that allow for elastic and self-service management, including virtualizednetworking and usage-based access.The next area is SaaS. <strong>Micro</strong>soft Office 365 is a subscription service that provides access to many popularsolutions that <strong>Micro</strong>soft manages in data centers worldwide. <strong>Micro</strong>soft will upgrade Exchange Online,SharePoint Online, Lync Online, Office Web-Apps and SkyDrive Pro to 2013 versions early this year.—Tom Mann, Solution Center Engineer/InstructorHave a question for Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>’s Solution Center engineers? Submit your questionto editor@ingramchanneladvisor.com. You’ll win a T-shirt if your question is published.28 CHANNEL ADVISOR SPRING 2013
AS LITTLE AS YOU WANT.AS BIG AS YOU NEED.Whether your customers buy one product at a time or entire truckloads,Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> Logistics scales to meet your demand.We process any volume from a single order to 300,000+ orders per day, easilyrolling with fluctuating demand. If you’ve got a logistics challenge, we cantake it on and reduce your supply chain costs. To find out how, contact usat imlsales@ingrammicro.com or (714) 382-4845.www.ingrammicrologistics.com© 2013 Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Inc</strong>. All rights reserved. Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> and the Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> logo are trademarks used underlicense by Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Inc</strong>. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. 2/13 JV2013.2020JV2013.2020_IML_CA_ad.indd 12/21/13 10:49 AM
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