Where IT Security and Physical Security Converge

October 2010

  • Cloud Cover Predicted: The forecast calls for computing and storage in the cloud.
  • Silos All Over Again: End users make the case for authentication management.
  • Faith in Security: Outdoor video protection increases personal freedom at religious and cultural center.


Features

Cloud Cover Predicted

By Lisa Bell

Perhaps you’ve heard of cloud computing and thought maybe you should look into it one day -- just to see what all the hype was about. Well, the cloud isn’t some far-fetched figment of a science fiction writer’s imagination. It’s here today, settling over the security horizon, and you need to hop on.


Faith in Security

By Del V. Salvi

Repeated incidents of vandals spray-painting the temporary construction fence at a 21-acre religious and cultural center in Chino Hills, Calif., indicated a need for a more intelligent perimeter protection and monitoring solution for the property. For the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and Cultural Center, a robust perimeter protection system was required to allow facility administrators to better monitor the perimeter of the property and protect an intricate and elaborate construction project going on inside


Silos All Over Again

By Idan Shoham

Authentication management used to be simpler. In the 1980s, we started out with one or two passwords. Then, as open systems and Web applications proliferated, users had to remember five, then 10 and now 20 different passwords, and the need for identity management was born.


Departments

Cabling for IP Cameras

By Carol Everett Oliver

IP convergence means attaching different building and communication systems -- such as data, voice, security cameras and building automation systems -- onto a common network through a common Internet protocol. In the surveillance world, IP convergence means moving from analog to IP cameras.


Gathering the Clouds

By Ralph C. Jensen

The topic of clouds is no longer relegated to meterologists. Now, you can’t talk about security convergence without addressing cloud computing.


Pioneering the Enterprise

By Debjit Das

Network-centric operations, a concept pioneered by the Department of Defense in the 1990s, are now delivering significant benefits to a wide range of industries. The ability to exchange and leverage information across networks allows organizations to drive more efficient and rapid decision- making processes across distributed systems. During the last 10 years, innovations in networking and communications technologies have enabled physical security systems to migrate to a network-centric model, providing users with intelligence and reducing response time in mission-critical security situations.