Page 10 - Campus Security & Life Safety, September/October 2022

Growing With Your Evolving Campus
When implementing a new open-architecture platform, organizations can often use existing components and avoid purchasing new hardware. Connecting pre-installed cameras, sensors, and more when upgrading a system can result in significant cost savings. As a campus’s needs evolve and new requirements reveal themselves, additional hardware can be incorporated to best meet the organization’s objectives.
As a corporate campus expands, a unified, open-architecture security system can grow with it. When new buildings or campus locations open, they can be seamlessly incorporated into the existing infrastructure. Operators can manage the security of these multiple campus sites, even when they are in different states or countries, from a centralized security operations center.
Likewise, as the number of visitors to a campus grows, a campus- wide physical access and identity management (PIAM) solution can streamline the process of giving access rights to new employees and guests. A PIAM system based on a workflow approach and individual identities can reduce delays related to assigning access rights. It stays continuously stay up to date on unique user attributes in the system to ensure safety is never compromised.
Improving Operational Insights
While a unified physical security solution provides an efficient and scalable way to meet safety and security objectives, it can also help teams go beyond targeted objectives. Many corporate campuses are enhancing their business operations using insights gathered from data collected by their security system.
A unified platform can help spot emerging operational trends and efficiencies by collecting and displaying data from thousands of video cameras and sensors in distributed buildings and facilities. This information can then be analyzed to detect a range of patterns, including occupancy rates, traffic flow, and parking usage. After analyzing the results, organizations can implement improvements.
For example, by incorporating people-counting analytics into a unified solution, corporations can detect when their office complexes are more often occupied and adjust utilities and space availability. They can get answers to questions such as: Are certain areas experiencing heavy traffic that could be alleviated by additional signage? Is an adjustment in the office layout needed?
Likewise, by using automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), corporate campuses can monitor parking-lot usage to explore ways to improve the parking experience for their employees. Are certain lots used more than others? Should spaces be reserved for rideshare programs or for those who are carpooling?
These insights can then spark discussions for overall campus improvements and provide a real return on investment. Management teams are becoming more resourceful in using this data to improve both security and business operations.
Cloud and Hybrid Considerations
In addition to improvements in business operations, corporations can also explore cost efficiencies when moving to a hybrid cloud solution, combining the benefits of on-premises solutions with those found in the cloud.
A hybrid cloud solution lets organizations increase resilience by seamlessly replicating their data. That means if there’s a natural disaster at a location or a server failure at a data center, users still have access to their system through the cloud. With cloud solutions, all information that is sent back and forth between an organization’s devices and the cloud is fully encrypted. So, even if a potential threat gains access to valuable data, they won’t be able to read or see it without an encryption key.
By implementing a hybrid cloud solution, corporate campuses can reduce the cost of server maintenance, including lowering their space and energy requirements. System updates can be issued through the cloud instead of staff having to do them manually on-site. This reduces time and labor costs, as well as improves cybersecurity by ensuring systems stay up to date.
Corporations often start their cloud journey with a hybrid solution that works with their existing cameras, hardware, and sensors. Cloud solutions deployed from an open-architecture platform make it easier to integrate with a variety of existing setups and provide the flexibility to adopt a hybrid system. Organizations can expand capabilities at a pace that fits their business goals and budget. For example, they may add cloud-based monitoring capabilities first while keeping local video storage. Over time, they can add the ability to record video to be stored directly in the cloud.
Unification Supports Evolving Needs
Corporate campus security needs often change as the campus evolves. Having a solution that can grow alongside their organization helps them adapt to these changes. Likewise, leveraging system data and information to other departments—such as real estate, building automation & facilities, customer service, and shipping—can bring new opportunities that enhance the organization.
Physical security systems are no longer solely leveraged for the security operations center of a corporate campus. Today, they can be part of a larger discussion on the corporation’s digital and operational transformation.
Mark Feider is the National Director, Enterprise Sector, at Genetec Inc. In his current role, Feider is responsible for helping the enterprise group meet its goals by orchestrating company resources and developing the programs his team needs to succeed. First joining Genetec in November 2007, his earlier positions in the company included roles as Regional Sales Manager for Central Canada, Southwest U.S., and Regional Sales Director for West U.S.
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10 campuslifesecurity.com | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022