Over the past decade, integrated cloud solutions have been central to any modern security system.
Now, a recent deep dive report from Craig MacCormack in Security Sales & Integration reveals that there are still some holdouts among end-point users to turn over their data and embrace the cloud. Leading security integrators are making these holdouts come around to the tech, which is indispensable to any effective physical security approach.
MacCormack writes that, despite some stubborn hesitance, security systems integrators “are starting to have more success in getting their clients to transition to cloud-based access control and video surveillance services.” This may entail systems that are located on site, offsite, or a hybrid combination of the two. MacCormack speaks with a range of experts in the field, who offer a comprehensive snapshot of where the industry is today with cloud adoption.
A growing trend
“People are seeing that you’re starting to use cloud solutions for their operations, so they’re more open to it…having a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering from Genetec on the market could help Infynia’s quest to increase its penetration into cloud-based installations,” says Alexander Reid, president of physical security firm Infynia, based out of Montréal, Québec. “We were kind of missing that in the past…Now, we’re leading with cloud when we do a pitch, so we’re getting more traction than we used to in the past. We’re seeing more opening, but there’s still some resistance from our client base.”
One way that the company has been able to convince clients that the cloud is the way to go is to provide concrete evidence that cloud-based, integrated security systems “will be separate from the customer network.”
Some of the resistance stems from today’s increasingly more complicated tech-centric world. Rob Hile, director of commercial business for GC & E Systems Group, tells MacCormack that when discussing integrated cloud systems, the industry has moved beyond just “passing data packets.”
Instead, it’s about leveraging high-frame-rate video, analytics, and other AI-fueled data. All of this requires very robust cloud systems.
“Traditionally, I can get your access control events to go to the cloud. I can get your basic video to go to the cloud. But when you start layering on the AI and the advanced analytics and third-party plugins and integrations. That’s not ready yet,” Hile says of one reality of currently available systems.
How to sell the cloud to clients
From the vantage point of firms trying to sell clients on adopting these cloud systems, Hile tells MacCormack that a very specific skill set is required to get the deal done.
“When you talk about an on-prem system, you’re talking about sizing the server accordingly, making sure that the server has enough horsepower for the analytics and the cameras, making sure everything is on prem,” Hile adds. “When you look at the cloud and you look at a cloud deployment, you kind of take that whole model and you turn it on its head…The server infrastructure is infinitely scalable. You don’t have a prem server, so you don’t have to have rack space. You don’t have to have a lot of this stuff that we have to design into the premise-based system.”
It may seem like a brave new world for the physical security industry, but to keep a company’s data safe and secure and make the most of access control systems and connected security cameras, the cloud is the way to go.
For MacCormack’s complete article, with insights from additional industry leaders, read the full piece here.