Widespread adoption of IP network-based solutions within the physical security industry is creating an increasing interdependency upon an infrastructure, which in most cases is owned and operated by a department outside of physical security. This mirrors current and historical trends within video conferencing and voice communication systems. The challenge for these systems, and security executives overseeing them, is to understand the choke points, the quality of service requirements and the backup operations that are in place.

As an industry we have traditionally built security systems in a way that was generally from a single or limited number of manufacturers. These systems were designed for a single purpose and generally stand-alone from other systems. However, today the pace of security technology innovation is moving much faster and ushering in new requirements for security departments to meet.