Network security and building security are equally important. If either system is compromised, the organization is immediately at risk. But while many network security systems are now built to support IT best practices and standards, such as virtualization, physical access control systems (PACS) have traditionally been designed without IT professionals in mind.
As a IT Director you face the regular challenge of managing physical and virtual machines in a complex and dynamic IT environment. Implementing new technologies should not add to that burden and take you away from the top priority of ensuring high network performance, security and availability. Traditional physical access control solutions are not designed for today's IT environment, requiring numerous implementation and management hurdles to overcome.
Do you need an access control solution that meets the needs of your security counterparts without making your job harder than it already is? You need American Alarm & Communications Inc., new technology partner Red Cloud.
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Red Cloud provides the most effective, flexible and cost-efficient platform that seamlessly integrates physical and logical access control without impacting network performance or IT staff bandwidth. Red Cloud appliances are pre-configured with a hardened Linux OS and with Open LDAP and can work within your current physical or virtual infrastructure.
Now, not only can you improve your security, but you can optimize your productivity because Red Cloud is easy to implement and manage - without taking on additional burden or cost seen with traditional PACS. No more OS and client software configuration issues, updates and viruses to address. And because Red Cloud solutions are specifically designed with IT in mind, you can easily extend identity access management to ensure centralized, real-time management of physical access control, simplify deployment, ease administration burden, improve security and reduce infrastructure complexity.
As IT is tasked with enabling physical security teams with smarter and more efficient technology, physical access control systems need to evolve with the needs of both parties. IT needs an open-architecture system that offers better scalability, the option to install in a virtual environment and improved options for integration with other IT and physical security systems. Not only do these technologies need to be easy to deploy, for example, in a virtual server environment, they also require the system be hardened to cyberattack while remaining completely reliable.
Meanwhile, the facilities team wants a solution that makes their lives easier. They want it to be easy to change, add or delete users from the system, they need it to allow flexibility to grant access exceptions when the situation arises, and they prefer having the ability to control door access privileges with a smartphone or mobile device, wherever they are in the building, without being tied to their desk.
A system that meet everyone’s needs not only improves their workflow, it keeps expenses down, both now and in the future. Organizations that seek out systems that bring together access control with video surveillance, identity management and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) can operate more efficiently and intelligently in all situations.
Perhaps most importantly, though, such a system brings down the barriers that have stalled the convergence of physical and logical access control systems for so long. IT no longer needs to worry about an insecure system that adds more operational overhead. And facilities staff no longer need to spend hours figuring out frustrating and confusing user interfaces. The two parties can finally work together to become more efficient and eliminate security gaps in the process, once an IT- and user-friendly building security system has been acquired.
Red Coud's key markets are:
- Higher Education
- K - 12 Education
- Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities
- Federal Government
- Municipal Government
- Enterprise Commercial Accounts, and
- Small and Medium Commercial Businesses
Who does that leave out? No one! Don't be held hostage by your access control system. Drop me an e-mail at jmcdonald@americanalarm.com and I will arrange a demonstration. Red Cloud can be found on the web at www.redcloudsecurity.com.
