5 Reasons Access Control Is Moving Toward IT

By Michael Pilato, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Viscount Systems

Much like other security devices, access control technology has evolved greatly over the last several years. Traditional access control was much like traditional surveillance technology: independent, “dumb” devices performed a single task — sometimes, not very reliably — and were unable to communicate to any other device.

Today, leading-edge surveillance cameras and access control devices have gone IP. Thanks to Internet connectivity, access control readers and other devices are able to communicate to each other and to a customer’s broader security network, which helps end users improve overall security, situation awareness, and incident response.

As the evolution of access control continues, a growing number of end users are beginning to see the appeal of an IT-centric access control system. Under this approach, the system leverages the power of the IT infrastructure to control access points through encryption bridges that transform card readers into IP-addressable devices. The entire system is managed through a web-based user interface.

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