Access control in 2019: more cloud and awareness of cybersecurity

Acceptance of cloud-based access control and video management solutions is expected to continue in 2019, with industry players pointing to an increased willingness among end users to adopt cloud products.

While most consumers still want to invest in more traditional access control solutions, the benefits of the cloud, such as quicker installation time, automatic software updates, flexibility and mobility, managed services and increased cybersecurity, are enticing users.
 
“We anticipate the major growth in the upcoming year will be in the cloud-hosted access control space as it opens up new revenues for resellers as well as the opportunity for many small- to medium-sized operations to economically deploy advanced access control capabilities,” said Rick Caruthers, President of Galaxy Control Systems. “As a result, we will also see cloud/hosted access control solutions continue to evolve with more features and integrations in 2019,” he added.
 
Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv, said that moving control and management of an access control system to the cloud made sense for many reasons, including improved management and control and better security. 

 
“It also gives access control systems nearly infinite scalability unburdened by the requirement of additional panels in an on-premises environment. The current state is a hybrid approach, with the cloud being the primary brain of a system and an on-premises backup. As access control manufacturers continue to move more system functionality to the edge (bridges and readers), it will make the cloud an even more attractive option for access control,” Spielfogel said.
 
IHS Markit expects market revenues for access control as a service (ACaaS) to increase to US$950 million by 2022. Small- and medium-sized enterprises will lead the adoption of ACaaS, according to IHS Markit. SMEs accounted for 21 percent of market revenues in 2017.
 
“Pushing access control into the cloud ensures end users can enjoy enhanced security but without necessarily having to invest in expensive IT infrastructure to do so. Access control as a service promises to be a robust and rapidly growing segment of the market for small- to medium-sized projects (up to 50 doors). However, it is not something that looks like it will take off for larger projects just yet,” said John Davies, MD of TDSi.
 
“Interestingly, with access control as a service presenting a new paradigm for providers, we may well see new players entering to market as a result. New entrants mean more competition, so it will be interesting to see how the market reacts and how providers meet these fresh challenges,” Davies added.
 
With access control expected to shift to the cloud as well as become more IP-based, the question of cybersecurity becomes an important consideration.
 
Awareness of cybersecurity was the main force driving technological development in access control, said Richard Huison, Regional Manager of the U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security. This was tied closely to GDPR and partially mobile credentials, he added.
 
But Huison stressed that “cyber is the big issue and it’s resonating at a higher and higher level.” “At multinationals, in specific industries such as banking and in enterprise level companies, they want compliance with various government standards and to be confident that ‘whatever is being plugged onto my network’ will not facilitate hackers gaining access via the access control or video surveillance system.
 
“In the internet of things, systems that meet a range of global standards such as the U.K.’s Cyber Assurance Products (CAPs), the U.S.’s FIPS and Australia’s Type 1A are where genuine cyber resilience will be found. In the U.K., for instance, only a handful of the 40 or so manufacturers will offer this level of standards compliance and cyber resilience,” he said.
 
For SMEs — where typically there is a lower level of knowledge, expertise and resources — Huison believes users need to be convinced of the resilience of their network, as well as whether their security investment is future proofed and “cyber safe” in the long run..