Report: Physical/IT Security Convergence Market to Reach $22 Billion

CHICAGO

The market for products that combine physical and IT
security will reach $22 billion in revenues by 2010
according to one of the first research reports concerning
the convergence of physical and IT security. The report by
security convergence consultant 4A Int’l (4Ai) also warns
that physical security manufacturers and installers may
lose out to traditional IT companies if they ignore the
demand of end users for convergence products.

The research, based on 25 interviews and an analysis of the
sales projections of 40 key vendors, says the brunt of the
convergence market will be in event management rather than
identity management, and a major portion of the event
management products will come from IP cameras and network
video recorders (NVRs).

Data from TARGET=’_blank’>Security Sales & Integration‘s 2004
Installation Business Report
measured the entire
electronic security market at $21.9 billion in revenue.

“To be blunt, the industry of video surveillance and video
analytics are pointless unless they are part of a total
event management process,” 4Ai President and founder Steve
Hunt told Security Sales & Integration, and added
that end users are demanding not only a security product,
but a total security solution. “The customer is really
annoyed that they can’t get the message through that they
don’t want video analytics, they want video analytics in
the context of a solution. They don’t want perimeter
management, they want a total solution.”

SSI was the first physical security publication to
announce the TARGET=’_blank’>formation of 4Ai back in June.

The key to the convergence market, according to Hunt, is to
remember one word: value. He says convergence is only the
end result of the end user wanting more “bang for their
buck” and having both physical and network security in one
package is one way to give them a value solution.

“Everything comes down to value. The end user has a tight
budget, tremendous needs and must come up with a right
solution,” Hunt says. “End users have a simple problem.
They have lots of people doing lots of things and need an
easy way to manage it. From the customers’ point of view,
the physical security industry has done a bad job of
meeting their needs.”

Hunt says the physical side better start meeting those
needs soon, or the IT side will. Hunt says he walked with
executives from Oracle and Intel on the show floor of the
recent
ASIS Int’l Seminar and Exhibits in Orlando, Fla.
, and
there are growing hints that they and other IT
manufacturers may be ready to throw their hat into the
physical security ring.

“New players will make dramatic entries. You can expect big
physical conglomerates to add products, but can also fully
expect the big IT players to enter this in a big way,” says
Hunt, who cites as an example Hewlett-Packard. “The day HP
decides to get into the access control and surveillance
business, it’s game over for half of the current
manufacturers.”

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