Physical security comprises more than just the objects, people, and areas in a physical location. There’s quite a bit more involved, and factors such as the underlying infrastructure, computers, data, machines, and cameras that help facilitate a complete physical security system play a significant role in bringing a complete solution to life.

Modern advancements and requirements challenge the status quo when it comes to a complete security platform and solution. These include the traditional ways of managing and mapping out facilities, data management, client, vendor, and visitor relationships. Therefore, we need to look at how the market works, understand business requirements, and resolve common technology limitations.

Youth Migration into Cities

A significant challenge for physical security systems and identity verification platforms is youth migration. For example, in India, millions of students per year move to the cities to pursue higher degrees. As they move around, there’s a tremendous amount of traffic on identity verification systems.

Here, in India, a lightweight identification system is in place with Aadhar, where all citizens provide identification through a simple chipless card. Once the reader scans the QR code on the card, it checks it against an online data store and verifies the cardholder’s identity within seconds. However, given the large mass of students moving into the cities almost simultaneously, it quickly puts stress on existing infrastructure leaving room for errors and failures. Therefore, future identification and physical security changes should account for possible mass demographic changes and migrations within an area in a short amount of time when designing their infrastructure.

Another concern with youth migration is the ability to handle complete identification through a single system. With many youths moving into the city, it would be much easier to use a single verification method across all services to reduce authorization and identification while helping them move around the city and sign up for different services without worrying about separate approval and identification methods.

Commercial and Real-Estate Growth

In a growing city, real estate growth is rapid and sudden. To keep up with the changes and requirements of a changing commercial real-estate, it falls on Physical Access Security Platforms like IDZONE to install, support, and provide specific physical security solutions for all these companies and organizations.

However, this brings a challenge for physical security managers, as businesses often rush projects and provide unclear goals. Therefore, connecting these platforms across a growing company’s multiple locations and providing infrastructure for new places turns into a monumental challenge. Finally, putting together all access information and compiling the data into actionable insights requires a lot of engineering effort and foresight.

Integrated and Cooperative Work Places

Unified workspaces have been on the rise for quite a while. However, with cooperative workspaces comes the issue of identifying and segregating multiple companies in a single workplace while ensuring top-notch security and access control.

By designing sophisticated systems with better user interfaces and convenience in mind, it’s possible to integrate a single security solution into a collaborative workspace, segregate the different organizations and provide complete security without overlap.

Here at IDZONE, our security solutions and identification platforms are well-equipped to deal with cooperative workspaces. However, with an ever-growing collaborative workspace, it may become necessary to reimagine a new solution that will result in zero conflicts.

Shifting to a Smart City

The next level in physical security beckons the need for city-wide access control and security solutions. Additionally, a better security platform means providing access to limited areas to citizens with specific privileges automatically through an electronic access control system. Furthermore, the security solution should extend to include gyms, courts, commercial centers, and libraries.

Through the implementation and complete integration of a physical security and identification system, it will be possible to promote better security in all public places, ease the pain of authorization and finally, make it easier for citizens to get around.

The security system can further extend to include first responders such as ambulances, medics, and police cars. Through a monitored system for access control, these vehicles can retain access automatically based on a particular emergency in various areas.

Altogether, for cities upgrading up to a smart one, physical security, access control, and on-the-fly online identification will pave the road for seamless movement, a cashless society, and better security.

Technological Challenges in a Complete Physical Security System

Now, let’s look at some of the technological challenges involved in creating a complete physical security solution –

Low-Cost Solutions

Physical security systems will often request low costs – although not through cheap devices and readers, rather an undervalued engineering effort. Therefore, there’s a tradeoff between a solution’s interface, usability, and functionality and the cost of implementing a singular robust security solution.

Increasing Use of Technology

Mobile phones are quickly replacing traditional smart cards and access cards as devices used for identification and authorization. However, integrating mobile phones and replacing the existing cards comes with an initial cost and a substantial effort to get a supportive infrastructure ready.

Complexity through a Multitude of Credentials

When managing a single organization’s credentials, we have to consider multiple user logins, credentials for different applications, software environments, and interfaces. To handle all of these through a single interface quickly becomes a nightmare for the IT operations team. Therefore, integrating an all-in-one solution and dumping all information onto a single team can act as a deterrent against such a system. As a result, we might have to rethink how to handle credentials, namely multiple credentials per user, across an organization or company.

To circumvent this problem, a platform such as ours (IDZONE) can come in and provide a single sign-on solution. We can offer to manage a single user credential system that will turn this ordeal into an IT dream.

Security solutions are often a liability, so making them easy to use, interpret, and rely on should be the primary concern when implementing a physical security and access control solution.

Altogether, IDZONE can help solve many of the complexities an organization will face in managing multiple users’ credentials.

Device Interoperability

When it comes to security, it’s best to have a sustainable ecosystem of devices and software solutions, particularly from a single manufacture or provider. However, the regular consumer or client prefers not to rely on a single proprietary solution. As a result, this introduces an additional challenge of supporting all hardware and software solutions. Moreover, supporting multiple hardware providers also raises the concern of these systems’ efficiency, given that they are from unreliable manufactures.

Here at IDZONE, we support many hard manufacturers and are compatible with plenty of software solutions.

Mobile Phone

Reducing the tax on physical security solutions on Mobile, Android, and iOS will effectively shift the landscape in favor of privatizing security – thereby increasing competition and allowing companies to thrive on innovative solutions.

Cloud Infrastructure

Hosting your entire physical security solution on the cloud is the real game-changer. Through this, it’s possible to incorporate a system that is easier to maintain, hosted over the cloud, and comes with improved availability and reliability. Additionally, it takes away the need for a maintenance workforce and many of the risks associated with an on-site physical security solution. Therefore, to take full advantage of a cloud service with secure and always online data centers, we at IDZONE believe in cloud-hosted physical security infrastructures and access control solutions.

Sophisticated Access Control through Domain Logic

Through an automatic access control system, clients expect more than just a standard access control solution. Therefore, the platform must support the automation of many manual tasks from the HR department and management. And so, cloud offerings and sophisticated access control solutions should provide customizability in business logic and operational logic. In essence, a process that would take two months to complete through manual procedure should be over within minutes in an automated access control solution.

Single Integrated Application

Usually, companies have to rely on different software tools to manage various security aspects in their building. For example, the applications used to monitor video surveillance differ from the ones used for access control. Through IDZONE’s integrated solution, you will only ever need a single application for all physical security and access control measures within your organization.

With a single integrated solution, you can save costs in training your employees to use the different software and significantly reduce the infrastructure maintenance costs associated with the multiple applications and solutions.

Conclusion

Switching to smarter solutions with broader coverage is essential for future growth both at an organization and city level. Therefore, switching physical security and access control over to the IoT world will enable better reliability and increases availability. Through IDZONE’s software and hardware offerings, we intend to enable such an ecosystem.