Outlook brightens in the post-dot-com era

Feb 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Paul Caplan

At the second month of 2001, the dot-com carnage is of brutal proportions. Coupled with an overall slowdown in blistering growth rates and dismal earnings projection, business is holding its breath to see what the next few quarters will bring. Like so many other industries, suppliers to the security industry begin the year with some trepidation.

There is reason to think, however, that this year might be a good one for security.

First, the industry had already geared down in 2000 in a "post-Y2K retrenchment." Budgets were tighter and retrofits were tabled after the high spending in 1999. The industry consolidated and a more realistic view of growth took hold. In the fall of 2000, a plethora of new products with new technologies were introduced. Thus far, the anecdotal evidence in 2001 suggests that business is very brisk this year (although it remains to be seen where corporate spending on security will end up). Lastly, this industry was not swept up in the euphoria of dot-com mania. The security industry had far fewer dot-com startups than most technology industries, and most of the ones that came online are still with us.

This industry is more "wired," more technology-savvy and a more natural customer for Internet-based tools than anyone thought heretofore.

The interconnected world has already had an impact on security solutions. This month we focus on tools and trends in security for the education environment, and technology advances geared to these challenges are numerous. You can find these new products at school systems of all sizes - from the large, metropolitan structure of Washington, D.C., as profiled by Michael Fickes (page 1), to associate editor Jeanne Bonner's look at threat prevention strategies installed (along with a great deal of hardware) in a rural Pennsylvania system (page 28). (Publisher's note: Please join me in congratulating Jeanne on her recent promotion. It is well-earned).

In the college environment, we examine security at a range of campus sizes - from an in-depth look at single-card access control for the sprawling urban campus of Georgia Tech (page 1) to the prolific Don Garbera's tour of security systems at a venerable Ivy League institution, Brown University (page 21).

Each of the featured applications incorporates features such as remote monitoring and card access technologies using TCP/IP protocol, advanced digital video transmission and storage, and integrated networked systems and biometrics. There is little doubt that this industry is indeed "wired" and Internet-enabled.

Which leads to the question "How do we handle the transfer of all of this data?" Check out CCTV guru Charlie Pierce's regular column that tackles the issues surrounding using fiber optic cabling (page 36). You might be surprised by what you don't know.

I believe there is real future and purpose for the Internet for this industry. There are Internet-based solutions that are working well today and have very quickly established a raison-d'etre. Along those lines, you will see some significant changes and improvements to our Web site, www.securitysolutions.com, over the coming months. As we move over to the platform developed by our sister company, IndustryClick (whose TelecomClick VOC is setting the standard for that industry), we will introduce a series of features that truly leverage what the Internet does so well - read that as research, interactivity and sound/motion. So stay tuned, this year's going to be a blast!

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue