First, ensure your cloud solution is actually a true cloud. A large number of security providers have merely ported their older, client server platforms to the cloud and created a browser interface for them. This provides no optimization for storage and doesn’t take advantage of the latest security trends.
Some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have created hardware platforms with data only residing locally on a server or motherboard with a browser interface into it. This can create the same issues seen with client/server solutions with requirements for local storage and backup. Data is not stored securely on the cloud.
Is your cloud technology current?
There are a host of reasons to adopt cloud technologies and security, particularly for entry solutions, is one of the most important. However, cloud security is only as secure as the tools that were used to develop the application.
Cloud applications that were developed more than five years ago and without a well-developed security roadmap run a serious risk of having vulnerabilities that new technologies may not have.
Two of the biggest costs for integration companies are initial and ongoing training for the installation, configuration and troubleshooting of each hardware platform they sell. There are many new cloud-based access control systems and entry solutions, but virtually all of them have proprietary hardware used only on their systems.
This can often result in additional training requirements that are not needed when common hardware sets are used. OEMs that offer both client/server and cloud-based entry solution systems that utilize the same hardware platform offer distinct advantages – not just for training, but for ongoing configuration and troubleshooting.
Additionally, it provides the opportunity for customers to upgrade any on-premise system to the cloud without the need to swap out any hardware. This gives a distinct advantage to an integrator, where typical quotes would only involve migrating data – which would be a significantly higher cost to the end user.
Benefits for the integrator
To many industries, the idea of a recurring revenue model is very new. The security industry however blazed this path more than 50 years ago when it introduced alarm and fire panels with phone line connections and service and maintenance contracts designed to keep their client’s security systems fully operational at all times.
However, a number of new, venture funded entrants to the security industry are often charging egregious hosting fees – which puts integrators in the unenviable position of not realizing a good return on recurring revenue streams or providing a quote to their customers that seems out-of-touch with reality. Look for partners that match well with your revenue strategy and avoid those who will cost you business due to high hosting fees.
Reducing service time
The best cloud-hosted systems allow your technicians to multitask from anywhere they may be. A single maintenance call for a client’s remote site can cost an integrator hundreds or even thousands of dollars in lost profit if the tech has to travel on site.
A well architected cloud system will allow a technician to monitor and troubleshoot from their office or current job while they are working on new revenue-generating systems or planning the next installation. Additionally, most end-users are notoriously poor about executing and maintaining backups.
Ransomware attacks or even server failures can wreak havoc with an end-user security system, usually requiring a maintenance call and excessive time on-site for the integrator. A well-built cloud hosted control system is constantly backed-up on redundant servers making it virtually immune to hardware failure and it provides significant insurance with backups in the event of a ransomware attack.
Upgrades and security patches
Cloud-hosted solutions keep software up-to-date with current releases and patches to provide additional benefits from new features but also the most current security fixes are automatically integrated into the software.
Perhaps the biggest reason why some jobs have significant cost overruns are due to problems with PCs being out-of-date or overly aggressive IT departments that have connectivity so tightly locked down, that it takes hours to troubleshoot connection problems between clients, servers and databases.
Couple that with the “often supplied, customer PC” that is missing three years’ worth of security updates for the operating system and it’s easy to see how a technician can spend an extra day or two on site that was never budgeted, costing the integrator thousands of dollars of lost profit on that job. True cloud-hosted access control systems and entry solutions have no software to install and typically have no connectivity issues because most companies already adopting cloud technologies allow browsers through their firewalls.
Using a cloud-hosted system provides cost certainty to a job, while minimizing the vast majority of IT variables that are the most common contributors to labor overruns.
It’s no longer fair to say that the world is moving to the cloud. It’s already there and any integrator that is not actively embracing or migrating their customers to the cloud is at least four years behind current market trends. The race to the cloud accelerated dramatically due to COVID and it has yet to slow down. If you are not actively talking to your customers right now about moving their entry solution system to the cloud, your biggest competitors likely are.
This article was originally published in the February edition of Security Journal Americas, in the Special Report on Entry Solutions. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.