At IFSEC this year we caught up with Mike Sussman,  Engineering & Operations Director at TDSI and
Chairman – Access Control Section of the British Security Industry Association. In this interview Mike shares with us his thoughts on the four key trends in the security industry.

I think the future of the security industry stems around four main areas.

Firstly the integration with IT systems, building management systems and flight information systems. Generally providing an open platform for third parties to deliver integration to deliver secure solutions for the customers.

The second exciting trend coming through is the growth of NFC technology  and the use of people’s mobiles. At the moment it’s still very limited because of the secure access into the mobile.  Once we see fingers print and facial recognition coming onto mobiles, with NFC will be able to use mobile as your credential. This will mean the gradual demise of the card population in the next five to ten years.

The third main area is cloud solutions. The way the IT industry is going and companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, we are going to see more and more companies delivering cloud solutions to make it easier to access your integrated security solutions. Whether that’s access control, intruder management or CCTV. It will be available from not only your desktop browser but also from your tablets and mobiles. It’s almost bring your own device to monitor your security solution.

Forth exciting trend, which will be coming out, is the growing adoption of facial recognition. At the moment it is still very much stand alone and in the next five to ten years we’ll be seeing some clever algorithms built into the cameras. Your security cameras will provide not only your CCTV surveillance but will provide the facial recognition and the access control all in one device, through a holistic solution.

The way the industry is going from strength to strength is not going to go away and with the way the industry is changing with regards to IT, we’ve got an exciting  few years ahead of us and it is only going to continue to grow.