US Army uses Macs to structure surveillance facilities

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Four US military surveillance installations are already based on Macs running OS X, according to the Security Systems News. Whoever supplies the surveillance software used by the government to videoNEXT and, having prepared them to run on Macs and PCs with Windows and Linux, this company was able to suggest the use of Apple computers to the IT department of the army to know its reliability and ease of use.

“They just work,” said Chris Gettings, CEO of videoNEXT, which recommends Mac OS X Server to its customers for providing the security that Microsoft's system does not provide, as well as providing an environment where you don't have to worry about memory leaks or things like that. In addition, the consistency of Apple hardware and its frequency of updating do not interfere with the choice of the right equipment for the installation of the installations.

It would be possible to recommend installations based on Red Hat Linux for the army, where videoNEXT surveillance solutions also run well. However, Chris warns that this system does not offer the same ease of use as Mac OS X, not to mention the fact that Apple hardware can handle a much more extensive surveillance installation.

According to him, it is possible to place up to 60 cameras under the administration of a server based on Mac OS X Server, while a similar solution coming from Dell can handle only 50 cameras. Whoever was behind the deployment of Apple solutions in the army says that the IT department did not react positively at first, but over time they recognized that using Macs was a safer option.

In addition, they already knew some of Ma's solutions being used in the field, such as using iPods for translations in battle zones. It is also worth remembering that the United States military is just a few of the many corporate iPhone customers.

[via AppleInsider]