Convergence: The Next Security Wave

When I arrive at my Manhattan office, I’m required to pass an ID card over a turnstile reader to gain entry to the building. The same card unlocks the doors to the Ziff Davis Enterprise floor. But once I reach my office, the HID card is useless. To gain access to my network and applications, I have a separate set of digital credentials.
  
The day may come when that same HID card—or some other integrated form factor—will provide me with access to facilities and digital assets. This is the vision of security convergence—the coming together of physical and logical security controls.
  
With the continuing evolution of this concept will come new opportunities for solution providers. At least that’s the belief of 1nService and PSA Security Network, two collaborative groups that facilitate partnerships among solution providers. 1nService is a group of IT-oriented solution providers, whereas PSA Security Network is a community of physical security companies (or, as the digital guys call them, the “guns, guards and gates” guys).
  
The two groups held concurrent conferences last month, in which both discussed the opportunities each community has in developing offerings and peer-to-peer partnerships to capitalize on emerging security convergence opportunities.
  
And the opportunities are enormous. In the last five years, security convergence spending has increased 1,650 percent to $7 billion annually. Much of this spending is coming from the federal government, which spent more than $5 billion on converged security technologies. Much of this spending is being spurred by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) of 2004, which required that federal employees and contractors have a single identification for physical and logical access to government facilities.