The ‘Physical Security in EMEA 2021’ report takes a closer look at how physical security teams across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are leveraging technology to manage both short term needs and long-term priorities. The findings offer useful insights for those responsible for developing their organization’s own infrastructure and security strategies.
The realities of Covid-19, and the subsequent shift to work at home, has emphasized the value of technology that can provide greater insight and control. As a result, video analytics, access control and identity management were all identified as strategic technologies for 2021.

Security and the Covid Pandemic

Already in 2020, physical security experts were confronted with a whole batch of restrictions that had an effect on daily procedures. The shift of workplaces from the office to the home revealed weaknesses in the use of operative tools, which showed hitherto unknown gaps in the cyber security of 46% of those questioned. Almost every second person who was questioned (48%) had to deal with fundamental deficits in infrastructure because of out-of-date systems and they recognized the need for modern system solutions. For around 60% of the security experts, the shift to home offices also made the work of their teams more difficult to protect all locations and branches of their company or their organization against physical security threats such as vandalism or break-ins.
The experts who were interviewed relied in particular on solutions for the detection of break-ins (39%), perimeter protection (36%) as well as remote functions (35%) to meet the new challenges of administration and the surveillance of people and company property in conjunction with the Covid-19 pandemic and to support the operative processes during lockdown as well as during the course of the gradual return to the workplace.
“Last year we saw a seismic shift in the way companies approach security,” said Cyrille Becker, managing director for Europe at Genetec. “The access control boom within facilities showed that the physical security industry is capable of streamlining innovative solutions – particularly when there’s a demand for enhanced safety. As we enter a new chapter, the industry must continue to adapt to changing requirements and invest in the latest enabling solutions to help make our workplaces safer, healthier and more secure.”

Cybersecurity is a Strategic Priority for 2021 and Beyond

Cybercrime is primed to reach record heights in 2021, with the rise of work-from-home and the growing adoption of IoT. Against this backdrop, 67% of respondents are planning to prioritize the improvement of their cybersecurity strategy in 2021.
“The rise of cybercrime has revealed that cyber and physical security measures can no longer be treated as separate conversations. Physical security professionals must partner with their counterparts in IT to understand the true limits of the security perimeter and mitigate against risk. This requires solidifying a resilient cyber-physical security framework, to ensure trusted devices are integrated in the network and subsequently configured, updated and managed throughout their operational life.” said Christian Morin, Vice President of Cloud Services and CSO at Genetec.

Accelerating Adoption of the (Hybrid) Cloud

Physical security departments have traditionally been slower to adopt the cloud, but the survey results indicate that the situation is rapidly changing. With almost two thirds of respondents reporting that the pandemic has somewhat (51%) or greatly (12.5%) accelerated their cloud strategy in relation to physical security.
Before the pandemic, only 37% of those questioned said that they were in the middle of shifting to cloud or hybrid cloud solutions for physical security. But the questionnaire showed that some two-thirds (63.5%) of the experts said that the pandemic had accelerated their cloud strategy with regard to physical security somewhat (51%) or significantly (12.5%). This contradicts the belief that many long-term infrastructure decisions within the company have been dropped or postponed because of the pandemic.
Although 76% of those questioned confirmed that projects had indeed been delayed during 2020, only 8% reported completely cancelled projects. The results show that the migration to the cloud will progress rapidly during 2021 and beyond.
“The unprecedented shift to remote work and resulting need for supporting technology, has highlighted the importance of cloud computing and, if business leaders had not been convinced of its benefits before, they are likely to be now.” added Morin.
For further insights and key takeaways on optimizing security operations, please download the full report (link below).

Download the report and learn more: https://bit.ly/2QviWed