Page 78 - Security Today, March/April 2025

U N I V E R S I T Y A C C E S S C O N T R O L
OPEN-ARCHITECTURE CONTROLLERS THAT DON’T
“LOCK” USERS INTO INFLEXIBLE ACCESS CONTROL
A U T H O R : T I M N Y B L O M I S D I R E C T O R , E N D I M A G E : U S E R B U S I N E S S A D / S T O C K . A D O B E . C O M
D E V E L O P M E N T , H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N , H I D
A
ll educational institutions must make their campuses
safe and secure using a multi-layered approach, and
controllers play an increasingly important role. No longer
simple, largely single-purpose devices, today’s intelli-
gent controllers allow organizations to integrate many
different systems into a single unified solution that
increases security, can be more efficiently managed, and delivers
valuable new building features and capabilities.
These controllers support open architectures so they can of-
fer greater flexibility, improve ROI and scalability, and strengthen
cybersecurity throughout a longer product life cycle while making
it easier to upgrade capabilities without a rip-and-replace overhaul
of the existing legacy infrastructure.
O P E N S TA N D A R D S , P L AT F O R M S P R O V I D E F U T U R E - P R O O F F O U N D AT I O N
School administrators want to maximize their access-control op-
tions and have the greatest flexibility possible when choosing
products, systems and integrations. They also want to leverage
a common application and interface rather than being forced to
launch a major rip-and-replace project, and the OEMs develop-
ing these products similarly want the ability to seamlessly integrate
their controllers with both on-premises and cloud-based access
control environments.
Open standards and platforms are vital for achieving these
objectives. They enable the access control infrastructure to support
simplified upgrades and the integration of third-party applications
to add new functionality whenever and wherever it is needed.
The controller hardware that delivers these capabilities must
support open standards ranging from OSDP and BACnet to PSIA,
MQTT and a variety of networking protocols. Implementing these
open standards enables many different devices and applications
to be integrated using an Application Programming Interface (API).
With this approach, administrators can deploy an open, cy-
bersecure access-control platform that gives their campus future-
ready performance with a path to seamless feature upgrades.
An example of this approach is Mercury’s recently launched
MP Series controllers that are supported by an OEM ecosystem of
roughly 30 OEM partners, ensuring they can be easily integrated
with complementary devices ranging from wireless locks to intrusion
detection products that synergistically integrate within the access-
control infrastructure to create a better, more intelligent system.
Each new device in the ecosystem extends integration op-
tions while building upon the value of previous integrations and
investments. Campus security teams that standardize this type of
controller benefit not only from existing supported devices but
also future products and integrations within the ecosystem. These
benefits are available through a simple firmware or app update on
the controllers that are already installed on the wall.
This kind of standardization also gives administrators the
long-term control they seek over their investments in the total cost
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