Industry’s March to the Cloud Manifests at ISC West

LAS VEGAS — For a good many attendees to ISC West 2012 — integrators, consultants, suppliers and end users alike — you might say they had their collective head in the cloud.

As industry stakeholders continue to break away from a legacy-centric mindset, an increasing emphasis is being placed on physical security systems that deliver cost savings and create newfound value by leveraging the cloud. This burgeoning trend was repeated throughout the conference, held here March 28-30, during industry panels, educational sessions and by numerous marketers across the show floor.

As explained at the State of the Industry panel, applications leading the way in this new value-add realm are video storage as a service (VSaaS), as well as hosted video management systems (VMS), which enhance solutions designed for end users with large, multisite footprints. ID credentials stored in the cloud to better facilitate managed access control services is yet another example.

Panelist Gary Wong, a senior analyst at IMS Research, told a packed audience that VSaaS revenues are projected to surpass $1 billion by 2016. Much of the growth is being fueled by increased deployment of networked cameras. The great opportunity for the industry is to use these IP-based systems, coupled with analytics, as ROI-generating business intelligence tools, according to the panelists, which included Mike Faddis, group program manager at Microsoft Global Security; Jason Bohrer, senior vice president of managed services at HID Global; Francis D’Addario, emeritus faculty leader of the Security Executive Council; and Bill Taylor, vice chairman of the Security Industry Association (SIA).

“You have to introduce new revenue streams, not only security and threat types, but turn the camera into data collection units for more than just security,” said Taylor, who moderated the panel. No longer are physical security applications solely about helping the end customer “catch the bad guy,” he said. The marketplace has evolved where service organizations can maximize returns by providing “good guy applications that help business.”

Among other sessions geared toward marketplace opportunities, attendees to the Siemens Security Leadership Summit were presented with techniques to improve their business leadership skills. Included was a keynote address by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan. To be an effective leader, McChrystal said it is critical not to be averse to change. Among other insights, McChrystal said top managers should always make a point of appropriately acknowledging their workers’ ideas and efforts. Not doing so could potentially stifle their growth and willingness to share ideas that ultimately could help the business prosper.

“How many times have you written a great E-mail to your boss and you mentioned the problem, presented a background solution and offered your recommendation?” he said. “You probably had someone else read it and you felt great about it. You hit send, and what do you get back? Just, ‘OK.’ ”

ISC West producer Reed Exhibitions announced that attendance to this year’s conference increased 10% over the prior year. Also, more than 10% of the turnout was international, with security professionals from Canada representing the largest amount of participation, followed by Mexico, Brazil, Korea and Australia. Attendees filled the show floor aisles throughout the conference to peruse more than 10,000 products from 900-plus exhibiting companies.

Each year ISC West serves as a platform for companies to announce organizational maneuverings, product announcements, industry prognoses, among other goings on. SSI editors were in the thick of it all. See page 14 for more ISC West news. Also, check out securitysales.com/ISCWest2012 for complete coverage, including podcasts, photos and more.

SSI also hosted its annual SAMMY Awards and the SSI Hall of Fame induction ceremony on the eve of ISC. Be sure to see which installing security contractors took home sales & marketing, business and installation honors, with detailed coverage to come in the June and July issues.

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About the Author

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Although Bosch’s name is quite familiar to those in the security industry, his previous experience has been in daily newspaper journalism. Prior to joining SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION in 2006, he spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, where he performed a wide assortment of editorial responsibilities, including feature and metro department assignments as well as content producing for latimes.com. Bosch is a graduate of California State University, Fresno with a degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. In 2007, he successfully completed the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s National Training School coursework to become a Certified Level I Alarm Technician.

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