SaaS is shaking the physical security industry

A & S International, the global security magazine, reporting from the front lines

If you missed the January issue of A&S International, it’s time to go back and take a look at their “Software as a Service in the spotlight” feature articles series. Their bold conclusion, based on interviews with both practitioners and customers, is that “Software as a Service (SaaS) is shaking the physical security industry.”

Why? For one thing, “lower costs are a primary driver for SaaS market penetration,” according to the lead article. This applies in particular to the initial costs of purchasing and installing a system. There is much less computing infrastructure to buy and set up with a SaaS solution, and that allows vendors to be more competitive with their pricing.

Ease of deployment is often cited in the broader IT market as a reason for adopting SaaS, and security is no exception. In the second article of the series, “Hosted Services Speak IT Language,” the article states, “plug and play devices in video, access control, and intrusion detection automatically seek the host server, allowing installers with minimal IT knowledge to deploy the system.” What this also means is that these types of systems usually demand far less involvement from the end user’s IT department. These services typically use the type of “outbound” connections (from inside the firewall perimeter) that most companies already have configured to meet their own needs for Internet access.

In terms of market adoption, they expect that “the SaaS market should polarize, dominating small installations such as SMBs, and large installations, like campuses or municipalities.” This mirrors our own data about SaaS penetration, which was dominated by SMBs in the early years, but is now increasingly the province of larger organizations with wide geographic dispersal.

In the last segment of the series, “Hosted Services Take on Traditional Security Considerations,” the case is made for understanding not just the promises of SaaS, but also the limitations, particularly in the case of video. Last-mile bandwidth availability—the speed of that DSL or cable connection that serves much of the business community—is still a consideration for higher camera counts. Most vendors recommend no more than four to eight IP SaaS cameras per DSL connection, although higher camera counts would function well on fiber links such as Verizon’s FiOS offering. In the case of SaaS access control, however, there is no such limitation on the number of devices because bandwidth requirements are several orders of magnitude lower.

The last word? Integration is something to look for. According to the article, “managed video and access control services can be integrated for functionality, either through a single vendor or through partnerships,” but a single-vendor solution is much less time-consuming.

Ah. Despite all the “shaking,” some things are still left unstirred.

-Steve Van Till