The years leading up to 2016 were transitional for the security industry. As products and services continue to move to the cloud, the industry has been hard at work learning the morphing landscape and how to best approach the new wave of opportunity emerging from every front. There’s an ongoing emphasis on integration and deeper connectivity between products, the Internet of Things (IoT) and, in general, seamless network connectivity.
Terrorist threats, mass shootings and other incidents at educational facilities have the country on high alert. Proactive— rather than reactive—physical security technology can reduce the impact of such attacks. Now, there is greater emphasis on access control, lockdown technology, emergency and mass notification systems, bolstering facility perimeters, providing layers of security, and using technology to address these increasingly critical situations.
According to market research firm Memoori’s 2015 annual report on physical security, the industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 7.82 percent since 2010. The firm forecasts that “growth in total security equipment sales will edge up by 8 percent in 2016 and, over the next five years to 2020, will reach almost $42 billion.”
In 2015, world sales of security products included the following:
• Video surveillance—54 percent of the market at $14.68 billion
• Intruder alarms—23.5 percent of the market at $6.40 billion
• Access control—22.5 percent of the market at $6.13 billion
New market opportunities and increased emphasis on existing ones—such as school and retail—will bolster the specification of a wide range of security devices. Greater ease of use and the ability to deploy products for more than security, such as video surveillance in business intelligence applications, will also result in end-users more receptive to spending serious dollars for technology if it can be used for dual purposes, such as operations and management data, in addition to loss prevention.
The IoT brings greater connectivity and data culled from sensors and detectors in and around the protected premises, but it invokes increased concerns over the privacy of networked communications and the potential for hackers or other malicious attackers to compromise systems. Encryption of communications and data streams and other certifications is helping the increasing demand to find solutions for data loss and hacking, but this area will be addressed more substantially in 2016 and beyond, especially as more sensors and gateways connect and integrate.
“The market will continue to move in the direction of the IoT but with more emphasis on how to secure all these devices,” said Joseph Gittens, director of standards, the Security Industry Association (SIA), Alexandria, Va. “Network security functionality needs to be introduced to the IoT in processes and standards. With all the different portals and other information that will be opened and interconnected as a result of the IoT, this area will increasingly be addressed as a critical part of overall functionality.”
Ease of use and functionality
Security technology is also becoming easier to use and manage for the end-user. One technology boosting ease of use is access control using smartphones. Smartphones can be deployed to gain access to a facility, either as an adjunct to traditional proximity cards and fobs or on their own. The ability to use smartphone and mobile technology also opens new market specifications.
For example, KISI Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., launched a cloud-based system aimed at upwardly mobile tech startup companies that use iPhone or Android devices to access doors and areas within these spaces. Leveraging Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology, the KISI system has been installed in hundreds of tech startups in New York, as well as the corporate headquarters of Cushman & Wakefield, said Alex Shamy, KISI digital marketing manager. Shamy said smartphone access offers flexibility for the customer with lower cost hardware, as well as the opportunity for low-voltage contractors to target younger, technologically savvy employees more accustomed to using their phones for everything.
Compatible with most existing access control panels and magnetic locks and strikes, Shamy said co-working spaces with a high tenant turnover and growing startups like the system for its flexibility and low capital outlay for equipment as well as the ability to expand or move the system as these companies grow.
“The system installs in under 30 minutes on top of most traditional access control and gives office managers and company owners the ability to manage access from anywhere,” Shamy said. “You can get granular on who can get in and where.”
High technology is how to describe the security market, and that trend will continue to move the industry to even more exciting endeavors in 2016.
