A Guide to Video Analytics

 In the past few years, video analytics, also known as video content analysis or intelligent video analytics, has attracted increasing interest from both industry and the academic world. Thanks to the enormous advances made in deep learning, video analytics solutions has introduced the automation of tasks that were once the exclusive purview of humans.

Recent improvements in video analytics have been a game-changer, ranging from applications that count people at events, to automatic license plate recognition, along with other more well-known scenarios such as facial recognition or smart parking.

In this guide, you’ll discover the basic concept of video analytics, how it’s used in the real world to automate processes and gain valuable insights, and what you should consider when implementing an intelligent video analytics solutions in your organization.

What is intelligent video analytics?

The main goal of video analytics is to automatically recognize temporal and spatial events in videos. A person who moves suspiciously, traffic signs that are not obeyed, the sudden appearance of flames and smoke; these are just a few examples of what a video analytics solution can detect.

Real-time video analytics and video m

Usually, these systems perform real-time monitoring in which objects, object attributes, movement patterns, or behavior related to the monitored environment are detected. However, video analytics can also be used to analyze historical data to mine insights. This forensic analysis task can detect trends and patterns that answer business questions such as:

When is customer presence at its peak in my store and what is their age distribution?
How many times is a red light run, and what are the specific license plates of the vehicles doing it?

Industry applications

Healthcare
Real-world example
Smart cities / Transportation
Retail

Thin Client Selection

In modern conditions, an ordinary personal computer at the workplace is becoming ineffective and even inhibiting the entire business tool. Therefore, increasingly companies choose a thin client for the work of their employees. This diskless computer is used to enter information and display the program interface, the size of a home router. The thin client operates using a light operating system and transfers most of the information processing tasks to the server via the network.

Thin Client Benefits

Thin clients (or terminal computers, or client computers) are chosen with the aim of saving on hardware, software, and maintenance, without compromising operational efficiency. The advantages of thin clients in the case of the desire to minimize enterprise costs are obvious:

1. such computers are cheaper than conventional PCs because they do not have built-in storage media;
2. thin clients are unified: they have the same set of programs, do not need personal debugging and configuration;
3. capable of scalability of a single system for an expanding team;
4. the economic efficiency of thin clients is also in security: all user information is stored on the server and regularly backed up, thin clients are provided with OS “from the manufacturer”, are most protected from breakdowns. Maintenance costs are almost completely absent.

Thin Client Comparison and Review

Comparison of thin clients - an individual solution in each case. A terminal computer will help reduce initial investment in job creation. When it comes to buying thin clients, a market review becomes an extremely important step.

Thin clients from the Smart Office company will help the company reduce costs by refusing to purchase licenses for Windows, configure software and purchase system units. Client computers work in the terminal (kiosk) mode, connecting directly to the terminal server without the ability to work locally on the computer.

The first parameter that you should pay attention to when choosing is the number of users (jobs): up to 20 or more. Depending on this, you can choose a thin client according to server performance parameters - the number of processors, the amount of hard drives, etc. The Smart Office company offers terminal servers on the Windows Server platform for rent, which is much more profitable and more expedient than a purchase.

Support for the PCoIP protocol is also important - hardware or software. Using the PCoIP protocol, thin clients transfer data from the remote desktop to the server. A hardware solution generates and processes information on a computer, and a software solution through applications. The presence of digital ports will also be an important parameter for choosing a thin client - for connecting a monitor (DVI-D and DVI-I) and other devices: USB 2.0, PS / 2 (for mouse and keyboard), Mic-In and Head-Out, and others. The amount of RAM (flash memory) for a thin client and a graphics chipset are needed if the user’s work is associated with the processing of graphic information and the need to connect widescreen monitors.

How to connect a thin client?

A smart client based on the Raspberry Pi 3 B + from the Nexgen IT Solutions and Services is the optimal choice with minimal costs and settings. This compact computer is characterized by high performance and wide functionality, suitable for organizations with a large number of employees.

You can connect a thin client both independently and with the help of Nexgen IT Solutions and Services specialists. By phone 909-467-6777 you can ask all your questions.

How to create a remote workplace

The introduction of a virtual office in the company's IT infrastructure implies the creation of remote jobs for all employees or a specific group of personnel. Another name for the remote workplace is the abbreviation (Desktop as a service - “desktop as a service”). The essence of the service is that users work with so-called desktop images, while all data, programs, settings are stored on a remote server.

Since all the hardware is concentrated on the side of the service provider, users automatically get rid of problems with installing, supporting, updating programs on the remote desktop. And we are talking not only about specialized software, such as accounting and automation programs, but also about office suites, instant messengers, email clients, etc.

How to create a remote workplace ? There are two main technologies for desktop virtualization: VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) and RDS (remote desktop services). In the first case, images of the operating systems of each user are located on a shared server. In the case of RDS, the user's working environment is the operating system of the server itself, that is, programs run directly on the server. RDS technology consumes less server hardware resources, and also reduces the cost of licensed programs. On the other hand, the user with this approach will not be able to install his virtual application.

The service of connecting and configuring remote (virtual) workstations is in demand among small business executives, startups, owners of online stores, brokerage companies, creative agencies and many other areas. All of them are united by the desire to minimize the cost of maintaining equipment and software. This is the optimal solution if the business "lives" online, and the main task of the DaaS service is to make working with software safe, controlled and convenient.

The benefits of organizing remote jobs for company employees include:

1. The transparency of the work of each employee. In terms of security policy, a virtual desktop is more reliable than desktop computers. It is impossible for an employee, for example, to discreetly download a customer database to disk or accidentally delete important data.
2. Quick setup of a new workplace. Deploying a remote desktop for each employee takes several hours, even taking into account individual settings.
3. Lower IT costs. For example, if you connect a remote workstation, you do not need to buy a powerful server, keep a system administrator on staff and buy a license. All your expenses are equal to the DaaS service fee.

5 reasons to choose cloud solution

Cloud solution allows you to use all the features of remote access to the virtual servers of the provider company. With this approach, the client does not invest in server equipment and purchase a 1C license, but works with licensed applications on a rental basis for a fixed monthly fee. The main objective of the transition to cloud services is the optimization of IT resources. Cloud rental is a direct and comfortable way to reduce service costs.

In what situations is it beneficial for a business to switch to cloud technologies?

1.Branches of the company are located in different cities.
The standard situation for business: employees from different offices, retail outlets, warehouses are scattered throughout the country, but must work in a single information space. The easiest way to provide convenient access to the database is to transfer it to the cloud.

2.It is difficult to predict the cost of servicing.
The cost of renting in the cloud is transparent, since it directly depends on the number of users. Knowing that the number of employees will not change in the coming month, it is possible to predict rental costs.

3.It is urgent to organize several user places with access to .
Cloud services - this is perhaps the only way in a few days to deploy full-fledged jobs for accounting, human resources and other units that are closely related to accounting programs.

4.It is not possible to maintain staff for service.
Renting a cloud eliminates the need to hire a specialist with such a narrow profile. The provider will undertake update, technical support, data protection from virus attacks. In addition, the area of ​​responsibility of the provider is fixed in the contract, so he is interested in the quality of in the cloud.

5.There were problems with the security of the existing infrastructure.
The transition to the cloud system will save company management from the need to constantly think about data protection. A reliable provider constantly monitors security systems, places servers only in certified data centers, and backs up user data. The Nexgen company carries out daily backups of its customers' databases; archives with copies for the last 7 days are stored.

cloud service meets the needs of both medium and large businesses. Server performance is enough to perform any amount of operations by any number of users working in at the same time. Other company resources can be transferred to the cloud, for example, mail, CRM, data storage.

Cloud evolution

My name is venkatasubramanian and I’m Nexgen CEO. I want to share some of the observations and conclusions that I made during this year, as well as talk about the prospects for further development of the cloud computing industry in Chennai.

We are talking about a real cloud - a distributed computing environment and scalable storage, designed to ensure the operation of applications and storage of their data. This is not exactly the same as virtual machines, which in their functionality are no different from physical servers, but in many ways surpass them, because they are more reliable and at the same time easy to maintain. We, the operators, are accustomed to be proud of this full functionality, but is this always what we need to solve the customer’s problem?

Nexgen provides services

Nexgen has been providing cloud computing services since 2012. But, recalling this fact, I must say that in that distant year we only had our first customers. And the understanding that this area has certain prospects in the Chennai market came to us even earlier, in 2011. This was the reason for the active work to create the first products and their promotion on the market.

I remember quite clearly how, 8 years ago, we got in touch with the first potential customers, who could not understand what kind of clouds they were talking about and why they needed them. One of the IT managers at the agricultural holding didn’t even realize right away that it wasn’t about clouds hanging above the ground and pouring rain on endless fields of corn. :-)

It was a very long time ago, cloud computing has not only “not become mainstream”: very few people in Chennai even imagined what it was and what it was for. The IT infrastructure of most enterprises, as a rule, consisted of physical servers installed in the pressurized zone of the data center or server rooms in the offices of the enterprise. Especially fast, the guys kept such servers in rented apartments, where from time to time there were power outages or some other poltergeist appeared in the form of the spirit of the late great-great-grandfather, who disables pairs in RAID arrays. However, cloud computing was not interesting to them then: “What kind of clouds are these? Everything is fine with us, they say. ”

Cloud market: briefly on the main trends

And, you know, now, too, everyone is doing well. Allegedly.

And when all is well and there is no demand for some new services, it seems, the operators can only brag about the number of certificates, petabytes of capacities and market shares. New services are not, because service providers do not see a demand for them.

I must say right away: I believe that virtual machines, especially machines running in a reliable cloud, are a great tool. Our company has been using them for more than 10 years to solve various problems, and I can quite say that I am a fan of virtual machines. Fortunately, we no longer need to talk about their advantages in 2019, so let's talk about some ... if not disadvantages, then, correctly speaking, features.

How is thin client works?

Thin client is an excellent solution for virtualization of workplaces in the office. The client communicates with the server through terminal access, in the same way receives all the data for work. A typical example of a thin client can be a computer with a browser that works with remote applications.

For the most part, a thin, low-power computer without a hard disk that runs on specialized versions of the operating system (for example, Linux WTWare) is used as a thin client. The rest of the thin client is not much different from a standard workstation - there is a system unit, a display, input devices, network access (via LAN or using a modem).

The principle of operation of the thin client provides for a continuous terminal connection with a special server on which not only the working data of each user is stored, but also the working programs are launched, with which the client interacts. Downloading the client is possible using external media (for example, CD or Flash-drives), as well as through a LAN network, if the network card supports the Bottom option.

Options for the implementation of thin clients in the office

More often than not, a thin client is a computer truncated in functionality - without a hard drive or other drive. Such workstations can be purchased ready-made or assembled independently. To start, you also need to equip a terminal server - it is the clients that will be connected to it, and it will perform basic calculations, as well as store data. Previously, in offices they preferred to install a physical terminal server, today, with the development of cloud technologies, they are increasingly taking it to the cloud. A terminal server can be a separate powerful computer with the appropriate OS and running application programs, or a whole cluster if the requirements for processing information are great, as well as the number of simultaneous connections.

To equip the office on the basis of thin clients, it is necessary to achieve uninterrupted access to the network, because without direct communication between working machines and a terminal computer, work will be completely impossible - autonomously thin clients are most often inoperative. A high-quality, high-uptime cloud provider usually completely solves this problem.

Key Benefits of Terminal Access

Initially, the principle of terminal access and thin clients was developed with one single goal - to save money. Such an infrastructure model can significantly save on equipment - the cost of workstations is much lower compared to full-fledged PCs for work. In addition, there is an opportunity to save on software - there is no need to buy licenses for each workplace, you can buy one license and install it on the server. The cost of system administration is also reduced, since maintenance is mainly required only by the terminal server.

Over time, with the development of technology and the decentralization of work, other advantages of this solution became apparent:

1. the ability to work remotely from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection;
2. simplicity and scalability - the configuration of the working environment can be easily changed without affecting the performance;
3. storing all data in one place guarantees their safety and availability for each employee;
4. security and data protection - in most thin client implementations, the user does not have the ability to save locally or copy work files and data. To this can be added traffic encryption and the ability to completely disable the server if necessary.

There are practically no drawbacks to this solution. The only thing is the requirement for a constantly working and working network connection, but today this is not a difficulty.

Where thin clients are used

The simplicity and convenience provided by terminal access quickly won a significant number of fans in various fields of activity:

1. increased security and closeness of the system has been actively used in the banking sector - for example, working with ERP systems, online banking;
2. the convenience of teamwork, the preservation of labor results and the speed of access to software have made thin clients indispensable in large offices - terminal interaction with office suites, 1C accounting system, various additional programs, Internet access, corporate mail, etc.
3. in the educational environment, terminal clients are also used - they allow you to effectively organize the educational process, reduce the cost of computer lab equipment, simplify remote education, testing;
4. there was a use of technology in medicine - safe data storage on the clinic’s servers and convenient access to the database allows you to quickly resolve issues and make management more efficient;
5. warehouses and especially large warehouse complexes are increasingly being transferred to terminal access with the unloading of management and accounting programs into the cloud. 

In addition, systems for the interaction of power with the population (“electronic government”, housing and communal services, online document management, etc.) serve as potential directions for the development of thin clients.