I enjoyed the recent ISC West show and came away optimistic and somewhat frustrated with our industry’s slow progress in several areas critical to the future of security. Internet Protocol (IP) networking “expertise” and cloud computing knowledge are areas that propel video surveillance and integrated security solutions to the next level. Moving forward, protecting information — and video images — will favor cloud deployments, as cyber security upgrades are automatic and failover and redundancy are best practices. Today most security integrators (non IT vendors) are not IP experts, slow to embrace the cloud, and have limited cyber understanding.
For years I have been writing and speaking about security convergence, specifically the merging of physical security solutions (video) over IP (wired and wireless). Improved video resolution and big data analytics are the future of integrated security solutions. The good news is that a cloud strategy may compensate for some of these knowledge gaps (IP staff / cyber skills) your business lacks today, while providing a bridge to future revenues — provided you get moving!