Morphean’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Martyn Ryder, looks at cloud’s ability to help businesses become more efficient while improving security and operational capabilities.
We are living in turbulent times. Brexit and Covid have brought with them great uncertainty as their effects look set to continue long into the future. And as we enter a period of worsening financial crisis, we have many new challenges to face. Rising living costs, including energy and fuel, will all have a major impact on our way of life, meaning that important decisions have to be made to enable us to live and work better and smarter.
Technology, and, in particular, cloud, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), have seen exponential growth and development in recent years and play an increasingly important role in the speed and accuracy of human decision-making processes. They are a complement, not a challenge, to human efficiency. And more and more businesses are turning to the power of data to not only improve security but drive greater efficiencies across a wide range of business operations.
Smarter security
Moving to the cloud delivers significant cost savings and facilitates easier IT scalability to meet evolving business needs. And when it comes to security, cloud has ushered in a new era of hosted security platforms that have far eclipsed the capabilities of their analogue cousins. Security personnel are now able to manage and upgrade solutions remotely making maintenance much more efficient. As an example, one technician can look after two or three customers in the time that it would normally take to physically visit just one. And at a time of rising costs, providing a service that represents better value for money, while also significantly saving on time, fuel and expenses, is a wise move.
Cloud enables connected devices and sensors to work together via the IoT, which facilitates the recording and processing of security data in real time. This dramatically improves the ability of security teams to respond quickly and efficiently to any incident in progress, rather than after the fact, based on the forensic-only capabilities of legacy security technologies. In addition, improved detection capabilities through the use of surveillance cameras with onboard analytics can result in a reduction in false positives. This means that security teams are only dispatched to investigate genuine incidents, again, saving time and money.
Unlocking business intelligence
Video surveillance as-a-service (VSaaS) and access control as-a-service (ACaaS) are two dedicated security solutions that can enhance security across a wide range of industries and sectors. Beyond security, however, the data these solutions collect and process can be utilised to provide many operational benefits. For example, data about how people move and interact around a site, when processed through an analytics engine, can lead to cost efficiencies in relation to heating and lighting in an office environment based on real staff and customer usage patterns.
Elsewhere, transaction checking software provides another example of the use of security technology for other means. Within a busy retail logistics environment, video surveillance data can be combined with the dedicated software to keep accurate logs as goods are picked, packed, moved around a site, and prepared for distribution. This data can be used by profit protection teams to give a greater overview of the logistical processes, and to provide crucial evidence in the event of a customer dispute, so saving time and money in relation to the processing of claims for lost or damaged goods.
Greener strategies and sustainability
As businesses strive to find new ways to demonstrate their net-zero carbon credentials, cloud represents a greener alternative to the legacy architecture of the past. Cloud environments can be simply upgraded and updated without the need to rip and replace systems to keep pace with evolving business needs. Rather than data being stored by multiple organisations in server rooms that need to be constantly maintained, now that same data can occupy server space within a datacentre, using less overall power. Datacentre storage means that companies no longer have to invest time, money and energy in the upkeep of legacy systems on-premise, and can gain peace of mind from knowing that their data is held in dedicated secure facilities.
Not just a box ticking exercise as proof of adhering to sustainable practices, cloud’s green credentials mean that consumption patterns can be changed to benefit the environment rather than damage it[1]. And as the UNs Race to Zero campaign[2] encourages businesses to commit to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, taking steps now to demonstrate carbon reduction and shift to a greener agenda will be increasingly viewed favourably by partners and customers.
Cybersecurity and future-proof systems
Adding any device to a network is not without risk, yet the cloud has now proven itself to be far more secure than its on-premise alternatives. Modern security and business optimisation solutions such as VSaaS and ACaaS are backed by regular software updates and firmware upgrades, keeping them constantly online and always up to date. Here, cloud provides a fast, efficient service with updates installed automatically the minute they are available, rather than having to rely on local on-premise installation, at additional cost and, from an operations perspective, an inconvenience.
The cloud ticks many boxes. For security professionals, there is increasing scope to work ever more closely with businesses, helping teams to understand the benefits of integrating hosted physical security solutions to streamline their processes and become much more efficient as a result. The cloud enables more dynamic, secure and future-proof organisations that will be better equipped with the technology to help them think and act smarter.
Discover more at https://morphean.com/
Martyn Ryder, VP Sales and Marketing, Morphean SA
