Bob Beliles Exclusive Blog from ASIS – Day Two: Hosted Services More than Just Outsourcing
In
my continuing three-day ASIS exhibit floor mission to find products that are
and will be impactful, I have come across several vendors that are leveraging
proven technology from the IT world to address various security
challenges. Yesterday, I focused on
virtualization. Today, it is all about hosted services. Based on discussions
with vendors and integrators alike, my guess is that you are going to see more
vendors and integrators jumping on board this bandwagon and end users will
welcome the move.
Hosted
services are a bit of a twist on a couple of older business / technology
models. A key component of hosted services is the software application itself,
which you may hear referred to as “software as a service.” For physical security, that could be video
surveillance, access control, video content analysis (video analytics) or mass
notification. This software is typically
deployed in some remote location under the control of the hosted services
provider and is not situated on the customer / user’s premises. Since these physical security applications
typically interact with hardware, physical security hosted services may also
have a hardware component which is deployed at the customer’s location to
ensure security functions can continue to operate in the event of a wide area
network connection failure.
In
addition to maintaining the software, you will frequently find that hosted
service providers also support off-premises application memory, data storage,
and a web-server. The hosted services
provider also has network security mechanisms to protect the physical security
software, memory, storage as well as the security information itself. As you might infer, this frees the customer
from maintenance tasks (operating system and application updates, security /
virus protection and remediation), thereby reducing operation and configuration
complexity. Customers effectively
out-source maintenance costs for a very predictable and consistent recurring
fee. Additionally, hosted services
providers can allocate maintenance resources and costs for the software and
hardware used by multiple customers much more effectively than the customer can
support a single, non-hosted version of the software application.
In
some cases, the hosted service provider will configure the application, but in
others the customer may configure and operate the hosted application. As
described above, the hosted services application is available to the customer
through a web interface. Information /
data generated at the customer premises is sent to the hosted software
application. Essentially, someone else
(the services provider) is maintaining servers, patches, cooling and power,
etc. Customers simply run the
application, and perform common tasks.
In
contrast, managed services are offered by a service provider will always handle
maintenance, configuration and, to a large degree, operation. Managed services are more akin to having
someone behind the curtains, pulling all the strings. The customer has very little control over the
application.
So
what vendors are offering hosted services? As I mentioned the list is growing,
but you will find hosted services offered by Axis Communications (cameras),
Brivo (access control), IPVision Software (video surveillance), Jemez
Technology (intelligent video image reconnaissance, e.g. video analytics), and
AquilaVision (mass notification). Next
Level Security Systems (video surveillance and access control) will offer their
forthcoming product as a hosted service.
It should be understood that vendors may also offer traditional versions
of their products as well. Hosted
services and traditional products are not mutually exclusive. And to be fair, Axis has quietly offered
software as a service to go along with their cameras for several years. Although, they became more visible with this
offering, earlier this year.
While
not necessarily the case for any of the above named vendors, systems
integrators / dealers and end user system owners / operators should check to
see if the hosted application provides full or limited functionality as
compared to the traditional product offering.
To
summarize the benefits, end security system owners / users will be able to
focus more on security and less on system maintenance which is now outsourced
to the manufacturer. They will get this
outsourcing benefit while also getting a consistent and predictable operations
cost (e.g. a monthly bill).
It’s
no wonder that IT business applications, such as Salesforce have seen phenomenal
growth as a result of offering their software as a hosted application. They
have a very compelling value proposition that dealers and customers really
appreciate. The same should be true for
physical security applications. All
aboard!
Bob
Beliles is president at B2 Convergence Consulting. Previously he was vice
president of enterprise business development for Hirsch Electronics. Check out Bob's first blog from ASIS. Use link below.