Electronic locking systems and the move to IP-based access control; by Spencer Marshall, pictured, regional sales manager – Northern Europe, at HID Global.
As organisations move to electronic access control for higher security, there has been a corresponding growth in demand for electronic locking. This trend will accelerate as the market adopts IP-based access control, and embraces convenient new wireless solutions. These include electronic locks that connect wirelessly to the online access system and can also be opened with mobile phones that act as trusted credentials. According to analysts at IHS, revenues from the sale of electric strikes and electromagnetic locks are expected to outpace those of mechanical locks in 2017. In the firm’s January 2014 Market Insight report, IHS said that global revenues for these products are expected to grow at compound growth rates (CAGRs) of 6.9 percent and 7.8 percent respectively.
Electronic locking becomes even more attractive with the move to IP-based access control, whose benefits include simplified system operation, expansion and customisation, and the ability to integrate a physical access control system (PACS) with other things sharing the same network. Most companies and institutions have installed a variety of generally disparate and isolated systems, ranging from security, access control and video to incident response, perimeter detection and alarm monitoring. Although these typically cannot easily share information, if at all, there are natural synergies between each. IP-based solutions make it easier to integrate them and provide the opportunity for a single new system that can be much greater than the sum of its parts. The ability to manage all of an organisation’s systems on a single network in any environment also delivers better facility management. Another security benefit is that it offers a more comprehensive view by enabling the integration of video with access control. The ability to manage all of the various video management and analytics sub-systems, intrusion devices and associated IP-based edge devices through a single user interface significantly aids situational awareness since all information can be immediately combined and correlated. As organisations continue to deploy IP connectivity for access control, we will also see the adoption of wirelessly connected lock-sets that provide near-online and near-real-time control of the opening. This reduces wiring costs and alleviates problems with using mechanical keys that are hard to monitor and manage, are easy to steal and misplace, and make it hard to investigate incidents when they occur.
Introducing electronic locks into a networked access control infrastructure requires that there be a continuum of options to fill the gap between traditional mechanical locks. The access system itself must be easy to adapt for facility expansion or to accommodate changes to virtually any card-reader configuration that security needs may require. This could mean controlling a couple of doors with dozens to hundreds of card holders today, on up to managing hundreds of doors at multiple facilities with as many as 100,000 card holders or more tomorrow. Unlike alternative proprietary solutions that rely on a single OEM panel and matching software, today’s IP-based solutions provide access to hundreds of access control software system options. This ensures that a user who purchases a system-agnostic controller product for use with access control software can later change that software to meet evolving requirements, without requiring a major upgrade. For optimal scalability, IP access control should be supported by complete developers’ kits that feature standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) to the embedded software driving access control functionality. This will enable customers to meet evolving requirements and expansion needs while protecting the value of their overall investments.
