Patent ID: 8817094

Claim:
A method of optimizing the storage of enterprise-wide security video, the method comprising: semi-continuously or continuously capturing security video footage at a plurality of distributed enterprise locations; storing the video footage as a plurality of video files at a centralized location; accessing the video files from a plurality of video viewing workstations within the enterprise; tracking a plurality of viewing attributes, the attributes including the times of access and the identities of the video files accessed; providing an optimization engine to determine a user-centric storage metric and an enterprise-centric storage metric, wherein the user-centric storage metric is based on the frequency with which a distinct category of users accesses video files of a predetermined age at one or more of the video viewing workstations and wherein the enterprise-centric storage metric is based on viewing behavior of at least a representative sample of users within the enterprise, said optimization engine being configured to automatically determine whether to compress or delete video files based on the user-centric storage metric, the enterprise-centric storage metric and a threshold value while preventing video files from being compressed or deleted prior to an initial review by a user, wherein the threshold value is a period of time in which video is to be compressed or deleted and the viewing behavior includes a period of time that lapses before video is viewed; and, automatically modifying the threshold value based on the viewing behavior to prevent video files from being compressed or deleted prior to an initial review of the video files by a user.