Technology advancements often come with new terms and definitions. The language of our marketplace evolves to include new words that describe innovations in the industry. In the skilled hands of marketers, terms intended to be descriptive can also take a new element of ‘buzz,’ often presaging exciting developments that will drive the future. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What new buzzword have you heard, and what does it mean for the industry?
‘AI video analytics’ has become a very popular buzzword in the security industry of late. Demand for AI video analytics appears to be growing if the market reports that we read are accurate. A big reason for this could be that current systems employed by police forces in North America and Europe are increasingly unable to cope with the sheer volume of surveillance material captured and stored every day. It is also reportedly set to rise dramatically, with the population of video cameras increasing by at least 12% per year. Added to this, there is a growing demand from businesses to analyse video streams and realise vital information that impacts other realms within the retail space (such as shopper behaviour and footfall for example), over and above monitoring for more traditional stock shrinkage and shoplifting.
‘Edge to Core’ is certainly generating buzz. In the past, businesses managed surveillance data in a centralised ‘core’ of data centres, which provided storage and analysis. But the advent of IoT devices, such as smart surveillance technologies, means the amount of data, and the speed at which it is being recorded, is increasing rapidly. There is simply too much data being produced too quickly for it to travel all the way to the core and back again. Instead, data can now be analysed and actioned at the source, or ‘edge’ of the network. The flow of data from the ‘edge to core’ remains critically important for deeper-level analytics of large-scale surveillance data sets. Data produced at the edge may not be immediately useful at the source, it may become valuable later, either to the business directly or to other businesses via open cloud platforms.
The 2019 Security Megatrends report, as outlined by the Security Industry Association (SIA), included ‘workforce development’ as an emerging trend in the security industry, and the topic has certainly been a key interest for many this year. More specifically, there have been a growing number of conversations around the need to build a more diverse workforce and the importance of training the next generation of high-quality technicians. Security professionals and technical educators must work together to create programs that will engage students and young professionals and provide them with opportunities that will empower them to become the next group of leaders. The future of the security industry depends on current leaders taking a united approach to combat these issues.
To be honest, I haven’t seen many new buzzwords. Of course, AI is still a trend as it has been for years, but I would not say there have been enough advancements to deem it ‘new.’ What is being heavily promoted is security as a service, whether it be access control, video surveillance, or anything in between. In fact, according to IHS Markit, access control as a service has grown three times faster than the access control market in general. End users are examining the total cost of ownership, and in some cases, implementing security solutions on a subscription basis is more cost-effective than installing and maintaining a system on their own. As growth in this area has already been prevalent, I expect we will see this trend continue.