From As Need for Data Storage Grows, A Dull Industry Gets an Upgrade:
Tollbooth attendants on Mexico’s federal highways handle nearly $2 billion in cash a year. Luis Gómez is watching them.Mr. Gómez, the toll authority’s technology chief, has outfitted 800 tollbooths with a video system that records clerks who might skim from the till or take a bribe to let an 18-wheeler pass at automobile rates. Only partly deployed, the system has already deterred enough ‘voluntary and involuntary mistakes’ to raise toll revenue by $200,000, Mr. Gómez says.
The system has also been a boon for EMC Corp., of Hopkinton, Mass. That’s because Mr. Gómez’s tollbooth videos are stored digitally, recorded onto the spinning hard drives of 27 machines housed in refrigerator-sized cabinets. The agency paid EMC $4.5 million for the gear, related software, and services to set it all up.
I can’t help but ignore the big picture and ask, Was it worth $4.5 million to save $200,000? (How much do they expect to save per year, and what kind of discount rate are they looking at?)