Cloud-Based Access Control Is The Future: SEN Readers.
Cloud-Based Access Control Is The Future – A clear majority of respondents to SEN’s latest poll believe cloud-based access control with mobile phone credentials is the future, signalling growing industry confidence in mobile-first credentials and cloud-managed systems.
The strongest support was for the view that “Phone and Cloud Based Access Is The Future,” which attracted 61.4 per cent of responses. This result indicates that more than 3 in 5 participants see a shift away from traditional controller-based systems towards mobile credentials and cloud platforms.
However, support for cloud and mobile access is not absolute. Around 20 per cent of respondents selected “If Topology Is Carefully Designed Then Yes”, suggesting that while the cloud and mobile future is accepted, implementation remains dependent on robust network design and system architecture with strong underlying cybersecurity.
Some respondents – most likely those in high security government applications – remain cautious about deployment in higher-risk environments. The option “Possibly, But Not For High Security Sites” received 18.6 per cent of responses, reflecting ongoing concerns about resilience, risk, security and suitability in critical applications.
Only a small minority rejected the shift outright. “Never – Traditional Controllers Are Best” attracted about 4.3 per cent of the votes – much lower than we expected – indicating limited support for maintaining conventional access control approaches as the dominant model in the future.
Taken together, the results suggest that while the industry broadly accepts mobile and cloud-based access control as the future, confidence is tempered by practical considerations around system design, distributed intelligence, local and wide area comms uptimes and the demands of high-security deployments.
From the point of view of installers and integrators a particular question is exactly what cloud access looks like. With the need for local power, local databases and local workstations its hard to feel that true edge cloud access has been cracked yet and even when it is, there will remain a need for a measure of local control to meet fire standards, as well as to handle inevitable power or communications losses.
What does cloud security currently look like? To us it looks like edge door controllers running on secure subnets – housing with alarm inputs and outputs, relays driving locks, reader input options, typically containing a backup battery and linked to local switch with digital credentials on mobile devices with everything managed by app or browser. That’s a very familiar model, isn’t it.
Anyone who can contrive true ‘edge’ access control using only wireless networks and/or minimal edge elements, removing the need for door controllers as we know them is going to crack the market wide open. But this seems a reach given the need to power locks and monitor lock states.
You can read about a cloud-based access control solution here or find more SEN news here.
“Cloud-Based Access Control Is The Future: SEN Readers.”
