Articles by Karyn Hodgson

SDM attended the last the last “Barnes” Buchanan conference, as Mike Barnes is stepping back from his traditional role in the event starting next year. The conference covered various trendy security topics, including the impact of AI (particularly on small businesses), an overview of the alarm industry, an M&A outlook and threats/opportunities for security in 2026.

Access control providers share their top advice for helping you make your customers’ access control systems as cybersecure as possible.

Being an integrator in the security industry is a bit like the saying “Keeping up with the Joneses.”

Security trailers have seemingly exploded on the scene lately. Providers and integrators explain the ins and outs of what goes into them, who uses them and how you can get started selling them.

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the top three issues that will continue to impact 2026 will likely be these three things: talent acquisition/retention, the economy and technology advancements, particularly AI.

Rapid technology advances meet shifting economic conditions to set the stage for a pivotal year in the security industry.

Alarm New England faced a tough choice in 2024: either take the path of growing the enterprise side with the Sonitrol division, or focus exclusively on the residential and small commercial business. They chose the latter.

In an era of big acquisitions, changing customer expectations and a feeling by some that the traditional alarm industry is on a downward slope, this company chose to sell off its large commercial business and ‘lean in’ to residential and SMB opportunities.

Whether you are an old hand at RMR or looking to start adding to your portfolio of solutions, the number of models and methods is growing, giving you more choices than ever.

SDM was given exclusive opportunities to interview some of the biggest thought leaders in the industry at all three companies, where we delved deeper into three important topics: where AI is on the adoption curve, whether cloud can be both open and closed, and the role of the security integrator in all of this.