Importance of Open Standards in the Security Industry
In today's rapidly evolving security landscape, the demand for robust, interoperable, and future-ready solutions has never been higher. As organizations strive to protect their assets, information, and people, the adoption of open standards has emerged as a critical factor in achieving these goals. But what exactly are open standards, and why are they so important for the security industry? In this blogpost, we delve into the some of the what, why, and the how of open standards.
Why Open Standards Matter in the Security Industry
Open standards in the security industry are agreed-upon specifications and protocols. They make it possible for systems and technologies from different vendors to connect and work together. Within the security industry, this ‘shared language’ allows security technologies such as video, audio, and access control to interoperate. They deliver a robust security posture to the asset owners.
Open standards within the security sector have been in existence for many years. They are recognized for their role in facilitating interoperability among various security technologies and systems.
In recent years, open standards have been instrumental in helping manufacturers innovate, reduce costs, and improve quality. This is in a highly competitive international marketplace. This also provides security end users with the assurance that products and solutions meet a recognized level of quality. It ensures an easy upgrade path as the technology evolves.
"Plug and Play" Convenience
One of the perks of open standards is that it is making security solutions ‘plug and play’. Open standards provide clients with the freedom to choose from a wide range of products and solutions, avoiding vendor lock-in. Interoperable solutions put the end user at the center of decision-making, allowing them to select the best products and solutions for their specific needs and budget.
Smarter investment
When security products support open standards such as ONVIF or SIP, most of the software development work is done upfront to ensure compliance with the standards. This eliminates the need for individual integrations on a project-by-project basis. This not only helps security integrators to deliver complete security solutions faster, but also reduces overall software development and integration costs in the long run.
Systems based on open standards are more likely to remain relevant and functional over the long term, protecting the investment made by asset owners.
“Future-ready” Security Systems
The introduction of standards over the last several years has allowed security vendors to innovate in ways previously not possible. Open standards provide a common framework that encourages manufacturers to innovate and develop new technologies. Users can easily integrate open standards into existing systems and experiment with them. This allows new innovations to be used by a larger audience, making technology migration easier.
From a security end user perspective, open standards ensure they are not locked into a single vendor. This makes it easier to introduce new technologies or replace outdated ones without overhauling existing infrastructure. This creates a more convenient path to adopting new technology as it becomes available.
Enhanced Situational Awareness
As the interaction between security technologies becomes fluid by being open, it increases the overall security awareness of the premise. This makes it possible for security personnel to proactively intervene with a security violation.
Zenitel’s approach to embrace the Open Standards in the Security Industry
At Zenitel, we prioritize compliance with the latest standards, dedicating significant R&D resources to this effort. We strive to make our entire portfolio compliant with widely used industry standards in the security marketplace.
Open standards present an excellent opportunity for Zenitel as they allow connectivity to other security technologies and platforms. This is why we have collaborated with industry-leading partners to deliver exceptional security and communication services. Additionally, Zenitel has a long history with the ONVIF committee since its inception. To further demonstrate our commitment to open standards, Zenitel is now a full member of ONVIF.
Zenitel delivers integrated solutions based on open standards in the security industry
Zenitel offers a wide variety of integrated solutions, which enables you to add sound to almost any security workflow.
Within the security workflow, you have three phases: detect, respond, and audit. First, you to detect an incident and then you take appropriate action to eliminate the situation. Finally, you need to audit the situation for ways to improve in the future as well as for training purposes for new security personnel.
In the first phase of the security threat, security staff need to have full awareness of a threat to be able to take the appropriate next steps. So, technologies such as video analytics and intrusion detection sensors are used for detecting security threats. In addition, having audio as part of your security system provides an added layer of threat detection and confirmation.
With an integrated microphone, our intercoms and IP speakers can continuously monitor the audio level, and once it exceeds the threshold level, it can automatically notify a video management system over ONVIF. Security personnel can now not only see the threat, but also listen to get further context to the threat.
The next step of the security workflow is to respond. Imagine a situation where security is monitoring an intruder over a video management system. Without an audio piece, they are unable to immediately respond to the situation. This is where Zenitel’s integrations with security platforms add significant value.
Unifying Security Solution
Using a single console from the security management platform, security personnel not only monitor the situation through a camera, but they can also dispatch audio messages to the scene remotely, either automatically or as a live message. Rather than waiting to send security personnel to the site where the threat occurs, we help to automate the security workflow over ONVIF and therefore, significantly reduce the response time and potentially eliminate the threat altogether.
After the incident is the audit. As a property owner, you want to ensure the correct action has taken place during the incident. You should have the ability to view all events to get a better understanding on when security was aware of this incident and how quickly they responded. You want to be possibly hear the audio recording and the view video recording to get a better awareness of the situation. Once again, with integration to third-party security platforms, our devices can record video and audio manually or based on triggered events like voice activity detection or a button push on our intercoms.
Integration with Other Communication Technologies
In addition, our core communication services can easily be integrated with other communications to provide a unified experience for security system owners and users. As an example, our ICX-AlphaCom communication server supports SIP trunking, allowing tighter integration with third-party PABX, radio systems, and other communication technologies. This integration brings various communication technologies under the ICX-AlphaCom platform, using open standards like SIP.
Support for Industry Standards and Flexible Integration
All Zenitel edge devices support ONVIF, the de-facto standard in the video management industry. This compatibility allows system integrators to easily connect Zenitel devices to third-party video management systems, enabling seamless audio and video streaming.
Customers with existing telephony servers, such as Cisco Call Manager, can connect Zenitel edge devices directly using SIP. This flexibility ensures smooth integration of communication services using open standards. Additionally, our IC-EDGE solution offers a cost-effective alternative for simple integration needs, eliminating the need for a dedicated communication server.
Summary
In summary, Zenitel supports widely used industry standards and offers flexible integration possibilities through SIP and ONVIF, providing three levels of integration for various needs.
Learn more about Zenitel's ONVIF compatible solutions.
Sri Sutharsan is Head of Marketing and Segment Solutions for Zenitel Safety & Security BU, a manufacturer of critical communication systems. With nearly 20 years of experience in R&D, Product Management, Sales, and Marketing, Sri has worked with global brands and businesses, assisting in setting vision and strategy for technology investments.