Unified security systems make it easier to protect a home or business. Separate systems that don’t communicate lead to gaps criminals can exploit. The unified system links all components on a single platform. What benefits come with using this type of system?
Seamless Monitoring
Rather than having separate servers, workstations, and management software for various security systems, everything is brought together under a unified platform. This allows security personnel to monitor all systems through a single interface instead of having to check separate applications. It streamlines operations since all events and alerts from security systems, such as door access or motion detection, are aggregated into a single monitoring queue.
Personnel no longer need to cross-reference events between various security systems to piece together an incident timeline. The Genetec unified platform automatically correlates events from different systems by applying biometrics, facial recognition across video streams, access control readers, and more. This delivers situational awareness with a streamlined, less complex monitoring process.
Security teams also benefit from having all systems under a unified framework when it comes to configuration, updates, and maintenance. Instead of independently addressing the needs of individual security silos, changes can be rolled out centrally across all integrated components. This reduces the overall effort in managing multiple systems.
Better Automation
The consolidation of access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and other systems provides greater visibility and control across an organization’s facilities. With everything connected through one system, security teams gain a comprehensive view of operations and events as they occur.
Unified systems make it easier to set automated responses to security events or issues. For example, a door left open or a motion sensor triggered after hours could automatically trigger an alert to security staff. The system could also pull up live footage of the area or lock down other access points. More advanced automation enables the system to take predefined actions to resolve lower-level security events without human intervention. This frees up security teams to focus their efforts on assessing situations, responding to high-priority incidents, and proactively enhancing protections.
The data, video feeds, and connectivity of a unified system also allow for advanced analytics and pattern finding. The software can scan the unified data to detect abnormalities, identify vulnerabilities, and predict where risks may arise. This analytical component ties directly into incident response automation, creating a feedback loop that improves preventative actions. Over time, the automation capabilities become smarter and more effective as the system learns from the implementation environment and previous events. With everything operating on an integrated platform, the automation can continuously optimize to provide ideal security protections.
Easier Maintenance
There’s no need to manually update firmware and manage subscriptions across disparate applications and web portals. With a unified system, maintenance happens centrally through one app that wirelessly communicates with all security devices. This saves considerable time and hassle.
Reduce Complexity
A unified system reduces the complexity of protecting an organization’s people, assets, and information. Rather than having disjointed solutions from various vendors that don’t integrate well, a unified system centralizes multiple security functions onto a single platform. This consolidation of tools provides a “single pane of glass” for visibility and control.
With separate security products, there is often duplication of capabilities resulting in inefficiencies. As an example, having various identity providers and authentication systems across applications can create complexity for end users needing to manage credentials. A unified system would allow single sign-on by integrating identity management. Access controls could also be unified by using one policy engine versus individual policies on different systems.
Another benefit is streamlined administration, monitoring, and reporting. Security teams can implement policies, configure tools, view alerts, create reports, and more from one central interface rather than touching numerous consoles. This improves efficiency and also reduces the chance of missing critical events.
Furthermore, the integration present in a unified security platform allows different capabilities to coordinate for stronger protection. Network monitoring can feed information to machine learning analytics to detect advanced threats. Automated responses could then quarantine malware to limit damage. This level of unified coordination is not possible with standalone products.
Increase Efficiency
With a consolidated view of threats, security teams can respond more quickly and effectively to incidents. Shared analytics provide enhanced visibility as well as better coordination between different layers of security. Automating manual processes around investigation, reporting, and remediation frees up security staff to work on high-value strategic initiatives. Overall security productivity increases substantially with a unified platform.
Reduce Costs
Rather than purchasing, deploying, integrating, and managing numerous stand-alone products, a unified solution enables organizations to standardize on a single platform. This eliminates costs associated with complex integrations between multiple vendor products. By consolidating security spending onto a unified platform, organizations leverage their buying power to negotiate favorable licensing based on their overall usage.
IT and administrative costs decrease since there is only one system to monitor, update, and troubleshoot. Training is simpler also with only one platform for security staff to learn. Unified systems make it easier to scale as your needs change because you can just add additional security applications onto the existing centralized platform. This avoids costly rip-and-replace projects down the road as your security needs evolve.
Drive Innovation
Unified security platforms enable easier adoption of advanced capabilities leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. Security vendors can take advantage of data from across a customer’s environment to quickly roll out new detections, responses, and features. Customers benefit from the continuous delivery of new forms of automated protection. This creates a cycle of rapid innovation to stay ahead of a dynamic threat landscape, something more difficult to achieve by stitching together point products.
The Path Forward
Transitioning to a unified security platform requires evaluating the gaps in existing security programs, developing a roadmap focused on business risk reduction, and phasing in platform capabilities over time. Organizations that embrace this approach will be better positioned not just to weather current threats but also to adapt and evolve against future unknown attacks. By transforming fragmented security into unified protection, enterprise defenders gain significant advantages over increasingly sophisticated adversaries looking to exploit blind spots and gaps across disconnected tools.
