INSIGHTS
On September 11, 2001, four suicide attacks carried out by terrorist group al-Qaeda claimed nearly 3,000 lives and billions of dollars in damage, leaving the world in utter shock in the months and years that followed. Aside from the economic and political ramifications, one significant impact of the attacks was how profoundly life was changed for much of the world’s population. Fear, and many other considerations, spurred massive investments in security. The security industry saw rapid growth, and overall awareness increased significantly among the general public. Today, 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, security has grown to be a multibillion-dollar, recession-resistant industry that is highly competitive and is redefining itself in many ways. Armed with funding from both the public and private sectors, the security industry was able to develop new and innovative technologies in the early 2000s. Although the 2008 recession significantly shrunk VC investments in R&D, innovation has not completely come to a halt. The advent of IP-based systems and its accelerating adoption have enabled some exciting new possibilities that deliver more for less to end users, and the movers and shakers of this industry, new and old alike, are now anticipating easier-to-use, smarter, single platforms that could manage and dictate security, building and many other systems simultaneously.
Ten Years Later: The Rise and Transformation of an Industry
Date: 2011/09/09
Source: a&s International
Crystal Ball?
The next big thing for the security industry will probably be more effective and seamless integration. “A major innovation we expect to see in the next few years is some type of solution, perhaps a software product, that actually can integrate any and every product into a single solution. We will definitely see those products within the next few years,” Sarangan said.
Security is really headed toward integration of multiple systems onto a single platform, and system integrators will find it easier to integrate these products, which ultimately benefits the end user, Greco agreed. “Stand-alone systems and disparate technologies are going away quickly as companies continue to produce products based on an open platform.”
Admittedly, there are still hurdles to overcome before this can be realized. There are still companies using proprietary technologies, and are not willing to share APIs or SDKs with other companies so that integration can be accomplished, Greco added. “However, it is certainly a lot further along than it was as little as three years ago. This is really driven by customer demand, as they expect their systems to be integrated on a single platform. The IT industry has been doing integration for 25 years, and integration will become more relevant as security becomes increasingly IT-driven.”
Cloud computing for security applications will mature in two to five years, Greco said. “While there are concerns over information security, current issues will be resolved and the market will mature. One big benefit is the ability to store data in the cloud rather than maintaining storage on-site.”
Identity management is another technology that is not very common today but will become very common in five to 10 years. “This is a concept that end users could really take advantage of in their businesses, and we will start to see that technology become widely deployed when end users are installing or upgrading their access control systems,” Greco said. “Not many companies today offer software that allows human resources information to abide by a set of predetermined policy, which in turn creates an access profile for a card holder and exports that profile into the access control database. The benefit is complete elimination of manually setting up an access control database and managing changes with that access control database.” The integration of human resources, policy engine and access control will become the norm.
More than anything, the 9/11 attacks increased the scale and brought focus to an industry that was previously scattered and diffused, Olive said. Future developments will continue to see convergence and integration of disparate systems, as this is clearly what end users are demanding.
Integrated, interoperable and holistic solutions are the further evolution or development of the industry, van Iperen said. “Let's take the integration of fire detection and evacuation systems as an example. This combination has been in increasing demand from the market side for some years now, with good reason: Both systems strengthen each other and reinforce safety and security.” And it does not necessarily mean that products will become more expensive to purchase or more difficult to use.