Laura Stepanek

Hikvision hosted 30 editors in the security publishing business from around the world, on a trip to China that blended business, history and culture.

With great cyber security services now being offered by security dealers and integrators, you wouldn’t be able to find out very much.With great cyber security services now being offered by security dealers and integrators, you wouldn’t be able to find out very much.

Writers are taught to use the most precise words possible, so understandably, a writer’s liberal use of the word “thing” in any one article or essay is frowned upon by journalism teachers. Thus when the term Internet of Things came to be widely used, I was delighted by its ability to deliver such a broad and imprecise meaning. It was intriguing, yet ultimately too wide-ranging — just what was this Internet of Things (IoT)?

Which suppliers do the largest systems integrators use? This Top Systems Integrators brand-usage report lists the top 15 manufacturers and top 12 distributors that earn the business of the largest systems integrators in the physical security channel.

While there has been no shortage of market pressures and disruptive influences on the security business lately, systems integrators nonetheless performed well last year. As a group, the integrators encapsulated in SDM’s 2015 Top Systems Integrators Report didn’t show much growth — just 0.3 percent. But that had more to do with the structure of the report than with the companies’ individual accomplishments in 2014.

Back in the day, “the establishment” was something the younger generation of the 1960s didn’t trust because it referred to a group that included elite government officials, the media and large corporations — and it usually meant that two or more of these entities were thought to be in cahoots.

The security industry looks to the SDM 100 — a group of 100 of the largest security companies ranked by their recurring monthly revenue — as a wellspring of industry trends and operational best practices. So, which manufacturers and distributors are behind the SDM 100, supporting them with the products, solutions and services that have helped make them successful?