Growth of the security systems integration market across regions have picked up in 2016, posting decent figures. Reasons for this are several, but prominent among them is the arrival of new technologies that are making solutions more efficient.
Growth of the security systems integration market across regions have picked up in 2016, posting decent figures. Reasons for this are several, but prominent among them is the arrival of new technologies that are making solutions more efficient.
Growth figures and reasons aside, there are certain other factors that have characterized 2016 for systems integration. One of them is the technological advancements that have blurred the line between security and IT. These include the increased prevalence of concepts such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and artificial intelligence, most of which have forced the systems integrators (SIs) to rethink their business strategies and remodel their work process.
Embracing new technologies in systems integration
The emergence of new technologies have given systems integrators (SIs) several new opportunities to provide more efficient solutions.
Perhaps the most significant change for systems integration in 2016 has been the increased presence of new technologies that promise to make security systems more effective. These include concepts like the Internet of Things and big data. At the fundamental level the arrival of such technologies highlight the importance of IT in security systems. For SIs, this means working closely with IT departments and ensuring their skills are suited for the latter.
“I think, overall, companies moving or addressing the Internet of Things is not really an issue for us, but we are getting much more involved in the IT departments, so the CIOs are much more involved, we move towards big data and IoT and how these things can work together,” Mike Duncan, VP for Global Accounts at Convergint Technologies. “So we have seen a movement towards IT organizations working closer with security organizations. It does represent the change in the way that we can approach a customer, and being able to be much savvier about the ways of IT departments, vs. the security departments, and in some cases, bringing them together.”
“It’s about convergence, in the security world, and we are actually seeing a substantial amount of convergence, especially in the bigger companies today more than what we have seen in a long time,” Duncan added.
Don MacAlister, COO of Paladin Security, said that the emergence of big data and the IoT is something the company is trying to embrace.
“While we’re certainly all feeling the crunch of big data, every possible number and metric are readily available, it’s how the numbers are crunched and making sure you’re looking at the relevant analytics,” MacAlister said. “It’s relatively easy to drown in a sea of data but being able to make sense of that data and gather insights that allow you to act, react or in some cases proactively make changes based on that data that make the difference. We have invested in analytics, are strong advocates for evidence-based decision-making as a company and have incorporated key metrics into our internal and external accountabilities. Moving forward, Paladin will continue to monitor the industry and our customers’ industries to ensure we’re always at the leading edge of any emerging trends or innovations.”
Others agree that IoT and related technologies are the future and SIs should look to benefit more from it. “Either by providing IoT-enabled solutions or implementing these systems internally to make their business more efficient,” said Tanzil Mahmood, Security System Director at Securitas UAE. “At the moment we have not embraced this concept in the full form, but have several POCs [Proof of Concepts] running that indirectly benefit from this.”
Then there are also others that feel that it would take longer for these new technologies to have a real impact on the market. Going a step further, Jabir Hameed, CEO of Lantern Systems, suggested that the impact of IoT on security wouldn’t be as much as it would be in people’s lives itself.