Integration is trending in the security business, as more companies offer solutions that provide comprehensive capabilities in one interface. Full integration of multiple systems is needed to enhance a facility’s security and to realize the potential of
artificial intelligence (AI).
Johnson Controls’ Digital Vault, for example, is a data platform that processes data from all types of sources, whether they are building-related or not. This includes building infrastructure data like access control, CCTV and intrusion detection systems, as well as lighting and building automation systems.
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Data relating to finance, people tracking, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) can also be processed by the Digital Vault platform.
Data integration is often carried out in the cloud. “Gone are the days of silo systems, and now you will have all your data ingested into a central cloud environment,” said David Budzinski, VP & GM of Global Midmarket Digital Solutions at Johnson Controls.
Later this year Johnson Controls will launch a connected cyber-physical security service. It will place data from access control and video intrusion in a cloud environment where the data is normalized. Differences in security hardware or security vendors are not an issue. The platform will also ingest social media and news data to enable risk management for large enterprise clients.
One central platform
Honeywell has a similar integrated solution for campus security, which is now a hot button issue in the U.S. It all comes down to a “single software solution” versus having multiple platforms – to better merge technology with the people and process part of security, said John Smith, Global Programs Leader of the Building Technologies business unit at Honeywell. “There is a drive toward integration,” he said.
The solution manages the access of students, faculty and visitors. A use case is that if a shooter is detected, doors will be blocked to prevent people from going into the area where the shooter is located.
The same idea may apply to the pharmaceutical vertical. With the right access control, staff without proper certification won’t be authorized to enter a given area.
At the very least, all the components need to at least talk to each other. Moving forward, deeper integration will buy more time to help protect potential victims," Smith said.
Benefits of integration
One advantage of integrating data from different sources is better decision-making. This is AI at play. The system will look at the historical behavior of alarm activities, correlate multiple points of data, and then determine the nature of an alarm.
In the banking industry, for example, in the middle of the night if a balloon triggers motion sensors, the software will also check other systems like the call center. If no one is calling to report anything unusual, the AI software will know it is likely a false alarm.
This allows for “risk profiling” and the consolidation and pinpointing of different alarms from different systems to provide a true picture of what is happening, Budzinski explained.
Arcules, a spin-off of
Milestone Systems, is taking a similar approach. The company’s video analytics service will combine video data and surveillance data with other types of data to “retrain” existing algorithms, said Arcules CEO Andreas Pettersson.
For instance, people counting data can be compared with access control data to determine if people are “tailgating” at certain times of the day, Pettersson said, adding that all of this is actually built on different AI or machine learning technologies.