Integration
With the advent of IP-based security solutions, integration and interoperability have improved significantly. Integrating security systems with other subsystems in a building is starting to become easier now that the same protocol and common platform can be used, Sarangan said.
This has, in part, led to a major change in the way security is approached. Traditionally, building automation, HVAC and other systems were always integral in the original design of the building, and were factored into the whole design in very early stages. Security was almost always looked at afterwards, and was something that people did not consider until after the building was constructed, Sarangan said. “Now, people are beginning to give security the same priority as they give building automation systems. They are starting to realize that security systems should be a part of the initial design and should be connected to the building during construction.”
It will take a while before it happens everywhere, but that is one thing that has changed over the past few years and will continue to gain momentum, Sarangan added.
New Players
Players in building automation have been playing a bigger role in security for obvious reasons. It fits well into their business strategy in that integrating security into their systems provides more value for their customers. After the 9/11 attacks, a lot of end users were in very unique situations where they had to provide levels of security that they did not typically provide in their buildings or businesses, said Andre Greco, Director of Sales for Security and Fire in North America, Johnson Controls. “Customers wanted to increase security to the point where they knew that only authorized individuals were getting into certain areas or into the building in general. We saw a lot of increased needs for turnstiles in high-rise, multitenant environments. There was also more demand for formalized visitor management processes and more in-depth vetting of individuals that were coming into the building, especially in major metropolitan areas.”
There has also been increased demand for securing areas that are wide open and see a lot of public access. Previously, security systems were focused on battling petty crimes such as theft or vandalism, Olive said. “Now, with the new terrorism overlay, areas that typically would not have security need new solutions to meet these new requirements.”
Building automation tends to look at the building from a different perspective. “When convergence became a hot topic seven or eight years ago, we started to see that almost everything low-voltage, critical or noncritical, within a building would be run across the network. We knew that it was a situation where IP was quickly going to become very prevalently,” Greco said.
Changes
One effect of the convergence between IT and physical security is a change in mentality. For some companies, network cameras are procured through the physical security department, and yet it is becoming more common for the IT department to make these decisions, Moss said. “The two departments are not as far apart as they used to be. The people I would see 30 years ago in security were almost always from law enforcement, whereas today I see people in physical security that actually came from IT backgrounds.”
Integration companies more well-known in the IT world have contributed to the industry as well, helping installers and end users cope with IP-based video surveillance. “They let people know that it's OK to put video over your network and store video with HDD-based storage solutions, and that it's necessary to have redundancy for video applications. They've helped companies understand that video is here to stay and that it's just another type of data. As it becomes more and more IP-based, it's going to fall under the realm of the IT department, and companies such as Cisco and Anixter have helped the IT community from that standpoint,” Greco said.
Even though the security industry migrates more slowly than most other industries, there have been changes over 10 years; however, it is hard to determine whether those changes were caused or only influenced by 9/11, Moss said. “Most of the changes I've seen in the industry are related to changes in the general economy, so the rate of change in the industry might be a little higher than normal because of the influence of IT on physical security. The overall rate of change has not been particularly caused by 9/11.”