Brent Cary, regional sales manager, Genetec Inc. (“Genetec”), a leading provider of open architecture security and public safety solutions, says that South Africa is starting to realise the importance of Access Control as a Service (ACaaS). Speaking at the recent Securex, Africa’s leading security and fire exhibition and conference, Cary says that globally the trend is on the increase and that while South Africa is playing catch up, it is not too late to safeguard and secure your corporate network.

“The surge of enterprise-level BYOD and large-scale adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) has escalated the need for a new and more cost-effective approach to access control and overall network protection. Of course, the growing interest in cloud computing and rise of relevant platforms all drive the need as well as growth of the ACaaS market,” says Cary.

The need to cut costs within the enterprise is also a driving factor. Organisations are looking to reduce spend on access control deployments, particularly on server infrastructure. Those that have multiple locations are also looking to centralise operations and benefit from ACaaS.

Cary says that now more than ever before, customers expect higher levels of flexibility and openness from their security applications: “Although the access control industry has made strides in offering customers additional choice, many organisations still feel locked into proprietary solutions but, ACaaS is set to change that. Customers looking to replace an existing proprietary access control solution will now have a new option that is simpler and cost effective. With ACaaS, they will be able to keep existing hardware, and simply subscribe to a term-based access control service, making upgrades easier and more affordable.”

According to market reports, Asia-Pacific ranks as the fastest growing market, but Cary says there are great possibilities in Africa: “We have widespread adoption of technology and there is a positive sentiment in terms of continual technology evolution. Genetec has seen growth in several sectors, particularly retail and property development.”

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