The market for hard disk drives (HDDs) used in video surveillance will hit the billion-dollar level in less than five years, as safety concerns and the requirement for higher image quality spur demand for more data storage, according to a Storage Space Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS. Revenue for both internal and external HDDs in video-surveillance applications will rise from $638.7 million this year to $1.0 billion by 2017, a remarkable 57 percent increase. Growth this year alone is forecast to reach 23 percent from 2012 revenue of $521.1 million, and double-digit-percentage revenue expansion will ensue each year for the next four years, as shown in the attached figure. The revenue figures translate to 7.3 million units in shipments by 2017, up from 2.4 million units in 2012 and a projected 3.5 million units this year. Analysts say the HDD industry as a whole will reap the benefits of a fast-growing video surveillance industry that requires ample storage, with the need for higher-quality video, network connectivity and cloud storage also driving the market. At present, internal HDDs that combine storage capacity with the recording system in one unit have a larger market than external HDDs in which the drive is separate. Shipments of HDDs for internal storage were higher than those for HDDs in external storage during 2012—a feat that will be replicated this year. Products on the market today that use internal HDDs for video surveillance include internal direct attached storage (DAS), enterprise digital video recording (DVR), box appliance network video recorder (NVR) and PC-based network video recorders.
