Security Appliances: What They Do & How to Select Them
As appliances have added functionality to appeal to the enterprise market, they are moving farther afield from their roots as embedded, dedicated devices. Security integrators must stay on top of their evolution.
You use a toaster for crisping bread; you wouldn’t use it for blending drinks nor would you heat an entire oven to crisp the bread. Similar to how a kitchen appliance is used to perform a specific task, a security appliance is used for a specific job. Using an appliance for video surveillance or access control applications has numerous benefits, such as saving money for end users by combining multiple components in one device, and enabling easier and faster programming for security integrators.
“The term appliance generally refers to a device that is dedicated to a single purpose, like a clothes dryer or microwave,” explains John L. Moss, chief product officer at LenelS2, Pittsford, N.Y. “Both [household and security] appliances have computers in them, but neither of them, for example, can operate Microsoft Word. When one appliance is connected to other appliances and/or to an internet cloud, we call it a network appliance. Network appliances usually offer a user interface that is accessible through a web browser and doesn’t require a user to install software on multiple computers.