While some see security video as the current fair-haired security solution, well, look again. Today, and into the future, a primary driving force comes wrapped in the concept of identity, credential and access management. It goes way beyond the early days of pioneering Wiegand effect cards, interestingly owned by Echlin, a car parts manufacturer that first used the technology in vehicle distributors. 

When it comes to security video, memory lane started with a videocassette. Today, tried and true storage comes in myriad shapes and sizes. Choice, however, comes with challenges. As an enterprise security leader, what do you need to store today, how can storage scale up when needed, what’s the total cost of ownership, how can storage handle video streaming from higher resolution cameras and the needs of retrieval for forensics and business uses? Then there is the question of security of the stored video, especially when it comes to hosted storage, regulations, requirements and privacy issues.

Who would have thought that if we put on an international terror trial in Chicago with a cast of bad guys, including a self-confessed two-timing spy, secret documents, a shady Chicago businessman and testimony of alleged involvement by Pakistani ex-military officers in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 170 people including six U.S. citizens, who would have figured that no one would show up for the trial?

Cloud computing, a maturing IT strategy, now has moved decisively into physical security, including video surveillance, with a surprising litany of business benefits. It turns out, for many, to be an essential tool to meet that equally essential “do more with less” attitude, which continues to spur consolidation, outsourced business processes and an accelerated investment in technologies that shifts costs from large capital expenditures to operational expenses. Depending on how high in the cloud, this can include infrastructure, platforms and applications now delivered in the form of services. 

Do you think that keys and locks are the oldest man-made security tool? Forget it. Guardhouses go back hundreds, if not thousands of years as a place a person would sit or stand, observe, control access, alert others and take occasional action such as dumping hot oil over the wall. These permanent and temporary structures, built in or brought in, are used in most every country. 

Add dirty hands, dust buildup, vandals, salt spray, electromagnetic interference and even explosions to the rain, sleet, snow and the gloom of night that can affect operation of access control systems, and especially readers in harsh conditions. And there is the stress on readers that must handle intensive traffic or electrical situations that can knock out gear for a period of time.

My first meeting with security executives in Chicago in the early 1980s included some of those attendees getting into a fist fight, due in great part to the “two-fer” beverage policy at the now and should-have-been-then-closed policy of the Chicago Millionaire’s Club. No doubt, it’s good to see passion. But, overall, security has been in an obvious struggle within their organizations for many years, more often over budgets.

Boss can be a noun or a verb. It can also be a cheerleader and partner with the aim of meeting and exceeding enterprise goals according to an organization’s mission.