Access control technologiesfor institutional and commercial facilities in recent yearshave become more intelligent, integrated, and user-friendly. Innovations like biometrics, cloud-based management, mobile access, and artificial intelligence (AI) integration play key roles in today’s technology. Rather than simply securing physicalareas, today’s access control technology provides a seamless, adaptable, and highly secure experience for both facility executives and building users.
Ease of use is the primary factor towards access control innovation these days, says Matthew Harper, senior security and risk consultant at Jensen Hughes. Intuitive applications allow for better training of systemuse and troubleshooting when something goes wrong.
“A graphic user interface at the operations side allows for real-time reporting in alignment with other integrated security technologies with an overall approach towardsfrictionless access control without the needs of cards or fobs,” Harper says.
The access controltechnologiesare driven by the need for enhanced security, improved user experiences, better efficiency and advanced integrationwith other technologies, says Randy Braverman, senior consultant, Facility Engineering Associates.
“Also, the rise of cyber and physicalsecurity threats, the growth and need for flexible, mobile, remote solutions, and real-time monitoring, and the demand of employees wanting easier and user-friendly systems,” he says.
Given that demand for Software as a Service (SaaS) offering has increased in recent years, established access control manufacturers have added that capability to their portfolio to compete with newer manufacturers whose offerings have always been SaaS solutions, says Laura Freeny, security technical manager at Henderson Engineers.
“The driving factors are the convenience and increasing comfort of cloud managed services, especially with the increased convergence of facilities and IT departments,” Freeny says. “Most IT solutions are cloud managed with recurring subscription costs, which was once a foreign concept for most security and facility departments.”
Another driving factor is that SaaS enables organizations with limited resources to deploy an access control system without the burden of maintaining and managing the system in house.
Biometrics in access control has been an effective means of credentialing for several years. As Freeny explains, they provide a more secure multi-authentication method than PINs, and the capability for controlled access without utilizing cards and fobs. The COVID-19 pandemic also has led to an increase in the adoption of more touchless biometric technologies such as facial and hand wave readers.
Harper says that, to date, deploying biometric access reader devices is a costly proposition in comparison to older technologies. Itis, however, effective in multi-authenticationneeds for select locations. As onboarding and the technology become more intuitive, he expects we will see an increase in its eventual use in replacing older technologies.
“Biometrics such as fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scans, and voice recognition are based on uniquebiological traits, which make them far more secure than traditional methodssuch as fobs and key cards,” Braverman says. “This can give you a much higher level of security. Biometricsare fundamentallytransforming access control by providing more secure, convenient, and efficientways to authenticate individuals.Biometrics rely on unique physical or behavioralcharacteristicsthat are hard to duplicateor steal.”
Mobile and touchless access is also becoming mainstream within the control solutions being employed by building managers.
Mobile credentialing is prevalent in visitor management solutions today because of the convenience of issuing these credentials prior to the visitor’s arrival and it eliminates the need to manage additional card credentials, Freeny says. Similarly, the desire to not manage cards is attractive to higher education managers due to frequent card loss and damage done by the students.
“Slow mobile credential adoption in other sectors could be attributed to privacy concerns such as from employees who are required to use their personal phones for their employer’s security,” Freeny says. “The invention of proximity card technology has been in use for decades and is the standard in access control. With infection control concerns, touchless biometrics are increasing in demand.”
However, Harper says mobile and frictionless technologies are rapidly becoming the most efficient and convenient means for access.
“Onboarding is easy, no cost for cards or card making equipment and tracking anddisconnecting from the system allows for increased security posture based on response time,” Harper says. “Frictionlessaccess aligns with ease of use and convenienceas well as cost effective. Access control systems (ACS) technology should be part of an overall strategy to know who is on the premises and whether they are authorized to be there. Many facilities use ACS cards as a form of company identification.”
The prevalence of remote work and the ongoing active assailant threat are examples of security challenges where displaying an active company identification are recommended. Harper also recommends facility executives keep the need for immediate visual identity confirmation when considering mobile and other touchless alternatives.
Cloud-based equipment is on pace to be an equal option for storage and remote access needs. Licensing and subscriptions are the primaryconsiderations of Jensen Hughes’ clients in the deployment of a cloud-based security management system. In addition, AI and predictive analysis in the last few years has demonstrated immense potential in assisting and even replacing human resources throughobservationalresponse.
“Initial pricing is a difficult pitch, but long-term deployment has the potential to save clients on costs,” Harper says. “The human element, or more importantly the replacement of human resources with AI, is also a matter of concern. Union-protected staffing and overall morale has an impact on deploying AI and predictive analysis applications.”
That said, cloud-based equipment allows organizations to employ third-party service providers to manage their access control system remotely. Conversely, as Freeny explains, organizations with numerous facilities spread across several geographic regions can utilize their own cloud environment to manage and maintain their systems remotely easily and efficiently.
What’s more, AI tools can assist with audit and report generation of large enterprise access control systems by providing prompts to query the data quickly and effectively for actionable intelligence gained from the system.
“The use of AI analytics in security camera systems can be used within the access control system for more predictive alarm generation, and incident management,” Freeny says.
According to Braverman, the cloud-based equipment might be a lowercost up front and reduce maintenancecost and a good system should be able to integratewith other cloud solutions, offering better, more enhanced security.
“Also, AI and predictive can offer behavioral analytics, facial recognition, biometricsand anomaly detection,” Braverman says. “AI enhances the system’s ability to predict, detect, and respond to securitythreats in real-time.”
Maura Keller is a freelance writer based in Plymouth, Minnesota.
New-Age Access Control Strategies Include AI, Cloud and Biometrics Technologies
