Integration enables users to proactively monitor servers and predict hardware failures through VMS
Today, BCD International, the global video data infrastructure manufacturer comprised of BCDVideo, Video Storage Solutions (VSS), and BCDOEM, announced its Harmonize iDRAC plug-in integration with Milestone Systems XProtect® video management software (VMS). iDRAC, which stands for Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller, is a health monitoring agent for secure remote and local server management, powered by Dell Technologies, that resides on BCD servers and appliances. BCD has taken the iDRAC service and tightly integrated it with XProtect so that hardware events, notifications and alarms are now presented within the VMS. Now, end-users and system integrators can monitor iDRAC features, such as hard disk status, temperatures, fan speed and power supplies, through XProtect. BCDVideo and VSS appliances will be available with the Harmonize iDRAC plug-in with XProtect beginning May 2021.
Continuing to expand its technological prowess from its foundation in 1999 as a provider of high-availability IT servers to Fortune 500 companies to the leading provider of purpose-built video appliances in the surveillance security market, BCD remains committed to delivering the best user experience and value to its customer base. BCD achieves this by adding integrations that are available only through BCD’s purpose-built appliances, as standard features on all of their related appliances. The Harmonize iDRAC plug-in for XProtect is just one of the notable offerings under BCD’s Harmonize portfolio of software solutions. How the integration works is BCD’s Harmonize software suite ingests the iDRAC API and listens for specific events, such as drive failure, and shares this critical system information in real-time to operators. The integration ultimately empowers end-users and system integrators to be ahead of failures and proactively manage any server crashes that may happen. It also gives them insight as to how well or poor the server resources are being utilized by being able to monitor central processing unit (CPU) and random access memory (RAM) consumption.
“The BCD Harmonize iDRAC plug-in with Milestone’s XProtect software is a game changer. BCD’s unique innovation completes the integrated relationship of the BCD appliance and the XProtect software to provide the ability to receive alarms from both BCD’s appliance and Milestone’s software via the XProtect graphic user interface. This has been the missing link for the complete visibility of the health of the Milestone solution.
“Additionally, the Harmonize iDRAC plug-in now gives users basic configuration of the BCD appliance along with Milestone’s software, providing better return on investment, competitiveness, and user experience for customers and their supporting system integrators.”
As video is mission critical, there has been strong demand for remote server management and health monitoring technologies from a single application across the industry. Any issue that arises from the video surveillance platform should be handled with the same importance as a camera tamper event, a door forced issue in an access control system, or complex analytics setting. Those events are immediately pushed to an operator. With the Harmonize iDRAC plug-in, operators using XProtect will now be able to immediately see and respond to storage issues before failure or other catastrophic events occur via the same screen as they are live viewing the site.
