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ers are demanding solutions to
problems and many of them do
not care which technology is used
to solve those problems. For many
companies, Security-as-a-Service
has become no more dramatic
than leasing a car.
Blake Kozak believes one
reason for why access control is a
latecomer to Security-as-a-Service
is because access control is argu-
ably more critical to the physical
security of a building. He says: "A
building can be secure without
cameras. If someone hacks the vid-
eo surveillance, they may be able
to see inside the building, but they
still cannot access the building.
With access control, there have
been concerns with having third
party servers hosting the credential
rights and in some cases, private
information such as biometric
templates. In addition, there
have been concerns regarding the
reliability of a hosted platform if
the Internet was disabled or the
host servers failed. This concern
has largely been dispelled with
the advent of "cached" readers
and panels as well as redundancy
servers."
The future of access control
Future trends in access control are
centered on the ideas of flexibility,
scalability and integration. With
open standards and online upgrad-
ing, some people believe that the
future access control systems will
be managed just as anti-virus soft-
ware with constant upgrades.
Blake Kozak thinks the future
of access control will include
NFC, access control as a service,
web-embedded readers and panels,
and more interoperability and
convergence. He says:"As the
access control industry moves
forward, there will be a greater
emphasis on flexibility and offer-
ings. NFC and access control as a
service will not be used by every
end user; however, there the ability
for all these devices and tech-
nologies to work seamlessly is the
future of access control." n
web-based access control systems
share similarities in that they are
both scalable and can reduce or
eliminate costs associated with
PC-based systems. However, with
Security-as-a-Service, everything
is configured, updated and man-
aged via the Cloud. Updates are
automatic and not controlled by
the user. Web-based access control
systems use either PC-based soft-
ware or embedded web servers in
panels. Blake Kozak believes that
the benefit of Security-as-a-Service
is dependent on the end-user.
He says: "Some end-users do not
require the flexibility of a hosted
access control solution, especially
large enterprises and high-security
locations. The benefits of access
control as a service is that there is
less hardware and software main-
tenance on site for the end-user.
In addition, other services can be
offered by the host, such as, man-
aging the access rights, printing
badges and credentials, back-up
servers, monitoring, use of mobile
devices, etc. This can reduce costs
for an end user that does not have
security on-site or a specialist who
can manage the system".
Critical to the physical
security of a building
Hardware has been very dominant
in the security industry in the
past, but there is a generational
change going on at the moment
which is contributing to a more
positive attitude towards subscrib-
ing to security services. Custom-
Onvif and OSdP
Onvif, an open industry forum
for interoperability between IP-
based physical security products
regardless of manufacturer, has
been a great success when it comes
to IP cameras. Now, Onvif has
been extended to include access
control. It means both that it
will standardise communication
between access control devices and
ensure interoperability between
network video products and access
control systems. It remains to see
what impact the Onvif initiative
will have on the access control
market, but there is no doubt it is
moving towards open standards.
Another important initiative is
OSDP (Open Supervised Device
Protocol), which targets the
replacement of the old Wiegand
connectors in panels.
Security-as-a-service
The security industry is moving
towards a business model where
services become more important
than products; Security-as-a-
Service. Hosted video is at the
forefront of this evolution but
access control is expected to fol-
low. Web based access control can
be connected to the Internet for
remote configuration, or through
an intranet for standalone access
control. Security-as-a-Service and
High-end
applications
Blake Kozak says that the
convergence of logical and
physical access control remains
limited to niche and high-end
applications such as banking
and government. "However, the
trend toward physical and logi-
cal access control convergence
could see more growth with the
increased uptake and interest of
NFC and the continued part-
nership of IT and building se-
curity organisations. It may also
be the case that only a selected
few workstations and terminals
within an end-user site would
have logical access control,
rather than every employee. For
example, the healthcare records
that are stored digitally at a
hospital may have the need to
converge logical and physical
access control, while an interns/
volunteer computer terminal
may not have that high security
need", he says.
Interoperability
In recent years, there has been a
growing trend towards interoper-
ability between different smart
card technologies and with inter-
operability, the end user is given
a future proof solution.
Blake Kozak says: "Multi-pro-
tocol smart card readers repre-
sent a small but growing percent-
age of reader units, for example,
an Iclass reader that can also read
Mifare. These readers offer an
advantage because they allow the
end user to use only one card for
multiple applications in addition
to access control, such as cafete-
ria payment or vending."
If an end user buys a
proprie tary system and later
becomes interested in features
that the system does not have,
he must rip down all hardware
and replace it. With an open
system, it is possible to change
and update parts of the system,
for example system software,
cards, panels or readers.
access control
Onvif, an open
industry forum for
interoperability
between IP-based
physical security
products regard-
less of manufac-
turer, has been
a great success
when it comes to
IP cameras. Now,
Onvif has been ex-
tended to include
access control.
Blake Kozak
thinks the future
of access control
will include NFC,
access control as
a service, web-
embedded readers
and panels, and
more interoper-
ability and
convergence.
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