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Ten years ago, I spoke at a national meeting of sales teams and executives. This was my last formal presentation to a company that I helped grow over the previous 27 years. The speech I gave was about kaleidoscopes and their relevance to business and leadership.

Drones and robots have always had sci-fi appeal. Even before the technologies were advanced enough to be very useful in security deployments, the interest was there — everyone wants to check out the new shiny toy.

Integrators face many challenges in today’s world. Some of them have been around for a long time, while others only joined the party recently.

They say a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. So perhaps it was fortuitous that the founding partners of Stone Security — all members of the Edmunds family in Salt Lake City — had no background in security integration when they formed the company in 2006. Steve Edmunds, a retired Air Force captain and Delta Airlines pilot, started the business with his sons and son-in-law after a brief foray into residential security, which they quickly discovered wasn’t for them.

I love this time of year. As I write this in August, the weather is warm, the grass is green, and the sun is shining bright. Especially this year, it’s nice to take a brief moment, tilt your head back, and bask in the warmth of the sunshine for a few minutes.

Selling and installing security solutions is enough of a challenge under normal circumstances, but a global pandemic can really shake things up. For example, the video management systems (VMS) market was chugging along until COVID-19 reared its ugly head and changed everything.

Enterprise-level access control systems have been slowly reinventing themselves over the past several years. Once solidly the sphere of the large, proprietary, on-site systems, more security and IT directors had begun exploring what else they could do with access control.

The typically steady fire and life safety industry saw growth in 2019, with overall global revenues surpassing $7.5 billion, according to David Gonzalez, research analyst, physical security and critical communications, Omdia, London.

To say that security professionals’ plates are full at the moment would be an understatement. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the industry has stepped up to play a vital role in keeping people safe, secure and even healthy through uncertain and scary times.