Below is an article by our CEO James Chong that was featured in Security Dealer & Integrator.
Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) has become an essential security solution for many public and private sector organizations worldwide. As IBM and others have predicted, 25 to 50 billion objects are expected to be connected to the cloud by 2020, underscoring the importance of embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) and building the framework for overall integration.
Smart city initiatives involve solution capabilities to enhance community safety, with integrated databases that can identify threat and risks. This is an opportunity for security integrators, who can work with cities to either design or adapt these smart communities from the ground up.
Organizational Convergence
With the trend toward converged security, the industry is witnessing a more formal cooperation between previously disparate security functions — especially physical and IT security. This includes a stronger integration between CSOs and CIOs, pushing organizational convergence to align with operationalconvergence.
When looking at Smart Cities, a further level of integration is required to create a comprehensive solution that allows disparate communication systems and organizations to work together; therefore, it is critical that security providers begin accelerating their roadmap for PSIM toward Converged Security and Information Management (CSIM).
CSIM can simply be described as intelligent software that converts massive amounts of data into meaningful and actionable information by filtering and correlating the data based on time, location, duration, frequency and type. Taking in information from video cameras, sensors and social media inputs from around a city, for example, CSIM correlates the data collected to help law enforcement and event management officials make the best decisions in the case of an emergency, and hopefully detect suspicious activity before it becomes a reality. These criteria are pre-programmed to fit each individual organization’s risk policy, standards and compliance requirements.
There are clear values for integrating CSIM software for local and state officials to manage security around large events such as concerts and sporting events, and especially when it comes to major gatherings that present an attractive target such as the Olympics, Super Bowl, music festivals and conventions.
As many cities have come to realize, the security market is inherently crowded and fragmented, and creating legitimate and proven value-adds continues to be a challenge for vendors and integrators alike.
Read the full article on Security Info Watch here.
