Moving Physical Security to the Cloud Delivers Efficiency and Boosts Security
The cloud helps streamline the management of video surveillance and access control systems and can improve your organization’s ability to investigate incidents.
Physical security is not a new concept. Castle walls and gates are ancient pieces of technology. Yet in the modern world, many organizations’ physical security systems haven’t caught up with the digital age.
That’s starting to change, as more physical security solutions are migrating to and being managed in the cloud. According to Genetec’s State of Physical Security Report 2024, 64% percent of midsized organizations said they had adopted cloud-based video surveillance systems.
Moving physical security systems to the cloud delivers significant benefits. The cloud makes it easier to merge, manage and update security systems. Migrating to the cloud gives organizations access to more advanced analytics capabilities. And it helps security teams streamline investigations, allowing them to catch wrongdoing and improve physical security protocols.
While the cloud delivers many advantages when it comes to physical security, it’s important to work with a trusted partner when it’s time to upgrade.
Modernizing Physical Security Starts in the Cloud
Management and IT leaders may feel that it’s necessary to keep an organization’s physical security on-premises, not trusting such sensitive and critical data to live in the cloud. Yet there are clear drawbacks to this approach.
On-premises physical security systems cannot be easily updated with new software. The supporting infrastructure needs to be managed and maintained by the organization’s staff. And on-premises setups limit the kind of analytics capabilities available from cloud-based network and security providers such as Cisco Meraki.
In contrast, the cloud allows organizations to manage their physical security across locations from a centralized dashboard. Software in surveillance cameras can be easily updated remotely. And the cloud enables security teams to merge video surveillance and access control systems to create an integrated solution. This can aid security investigations by making it easier to match surveillance footage to access logs, for example.
The cloud also opens up new possibilities, including advanced analytics capabilities, such as detecting loitering at specific spots in facilities. It also allows organizations to more easily issue access credentials to employees through their smartphones.
Streamline and Improve Your Physical Security Posture
Increasingly, responsibility for physical security is being handed off to IT teams, which are already managing a lot of tasks and technologies, including cybersecurity.
Robust physical security is a must for nearly every organization, and it can’t simply be offloaded to another entity. However, the cloud makes it easier to maintain and manage.
Through the cloud, IT teams can easily add new networked cameras, update them with the latest software from their vendor partners and manage them from central hubs. They also will no longer have to manage servers and storage related to surveillance footage and other physical security data at individual facilities. The days of manually uploading new software to surveillance cameras are over.
