US EDUCATIONAL SERIES SPONSORED BY ADT ASIS LEARNING #1 SecurityInfoWatch.com: Security News for the Security Industry - Information, Assessment and Community#1 - Custom Solutions Through Product Combinations
ASIS Learning #1: The Prominence of Networked and Web-Based Security Solutions

Geoff Kohl, editor, SecurityInfoWatch.com

While cruising the ASIS Seminars and Exhibits this year, it would have been helpful to take your IT expert with you. Things have changed from the days when it was all analog video cameras and proprietary, hard-wired access control systems. Today, you're as likely to see Ethernet cables and the touting of web-based solutions as you are to hear about the need for having guards in the lobby.

To what can we credit this change? In a word: Integration. In many legacy systems, access control data and video data and fire alarm data are all fed back to the same room. But even though you've been able to get that data inside a single room, you're not getting all of the intelligence you can out of this system because each piece hasn't been able to talk to other components. And once you're out of the operations center, you receive no intelligence at all without a phone call.

So times changed. Now, if you want to get wired, you can find cameras, panels, readers, biometric stations and recording devices that are all network compatible. Since we're converting the security data into something that can be sent across the network, we've been able to do unique things in terms of enterprise management systems. We can merge alarm and video data on a computer and employ interactive maps that allow us to bring up the camera nearest to the triggered door alarm. By putting access control user databases on the network, our systems can talk to HR to get instantaneous hiring and firing updates. And because of the networked possibility, data from all the five corporate campus buildings can easily be sent to the security center of Building Two.

At the same time, one of the chief benefits of these web-based offerings is that you don't have to be confined to your operations center to begin incident management. Many of today's systems on display at the ASIS show allow incident data to be shipped out via email or text message alerts. Some businesses around the show floor were even demonstrating systems that put video into the first responders' vehicles and onto a guard's PDA device as he moves toward the scene.

With all this networking of digital systems, you're going to need to turn to your company's IT staff for maintenance and purchasing recommendations. Some analysts predicted that one security department would be created from a convergence of the IT security staff and the physical security staff, but as the ASIS 2005 show indicated, it's not that these departments have to become one -- they just have to work together to set up the technology of building security.

Finally, a few predictions we see based on this year's ASIS show:

* Integrators are going to be more and more vital, largely because businesses need to "do more" with the security systems and integrate them with IT access control and human resources to meet strict HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements

* Small businesses and residential systems will be quickly turning toward IP-based systems, if only because they've grown comfortable with the networking of their office PCs and home computers, but also because it allows for office and/or home automation.

* Web-based video will largely replace analog in four years. Okay, this isn't really our prediction; it comes from the research of the IDC Network Camera Forecast. The researchers over at Frost & Sullivan have been saying the same thing. Why? It's because, as many ASIS vendors were showing, even legacy systems can be made to work with today's networked systems.

* Government databases will help drive the trend. As the government proliferates its offering of databases on sexual offenders, "most wanted" and "no-fly", you'll need to offer your system a way to stay up-to-date on these lists. Web-based deliveries means your access control system is as current as the government lists.

* Web-based means easy system updates. How many times have you had to do system updates on the PC at your desk? It's the same situation with today's digital equipment -- it will need occasional software or firmware updates to improve performance or fix a possible 'bug'. By being Web-based, these pieces can be updated remotely and instantly, rather than requiring an on-site technician.

* No more stolen video footage. Every week, a thief breaks into a store, robs it and grabs the surveillance tapes on the way out. DVRs helped stymie this, but with networked security systems, that video can be saved in the server room, monitored in real-time at a central station, and even have a back-up saved on a server that's two states away. Best of all, Johnny Thief won't have a clue about what to grab to make sure his mug doesn't appear on TV.