Already the darling of a growing number of enterprise information executives, going into the cloud has come to their security brethren, bringing the same business advantages but also, not surprisingly, the same risks.

The Lexus came out squeaky clean. Then came the Chevy, the Buick, the Honda, and more. Autobell, founded in Charlotte, NC, in 1969 by Charles Howard, is now the biggest car wash chain in the southeast. From the beginning, Howard showcased the latest in car wash equipment technology with a focus on the environment and the community.

Storage costs money. With the growing attraction of megapixel cameras coupled with expanding security video uses ranging from forensics to marketing, the storage price tag can go up and up. Then, depending on the devices and their closeness to the IT operation, there is the cost of running and cooling the gear as well as the investment in backup and redundant storage systems.

Sorry, but Willie Sutton never did say that he robbed banks because “that was where the money was.” But, after his last stay in prison, he did do television commercials for Connecticut’s New Britain Bank & Trust Co. to hawk the company’s new MasterCard.

Cards. Biometrics. PINs. Keypads. Readers. Software. Databases. Wiring. They are all part of door access control solutions. But there also is the gear that keeps the door locked until identity is authenticated: the electromagnetic locks and electric strikes.

That swamp-loving movie star Kermit got it wrong. It’s getting easier being green. And for security operations, and thanks to advances with integrated systems, enterprises can reduce costs, improve productivity, boost return on investment, attract new business from other green-leaning firms and add value to the brand.

While world economies face additional challenges and unemployment seems chronic, many enterprises, often awash in cash, have increased their investment in computer and communications technologies. According to Gardner Research, worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.67 trillion in 2011, a 7.1-percent increase from $3.43 trillion in 2010. Gartner has raised its outlook for 2011 from its previous forecast of 5.6 percent growth.

It started with fairly simple video motion detection, a certain change in pixels raises an alert. Nowadays, algorithms – basically instances of logic to produce output from given video input – have expanded to cover people, behavior, demographics, traffic patterns, objects, vehicles and virtual perimeters. Video analytics has also evolved beyond security to include myriad business applications that can range from highway traffic management to retail merchandizing.

Brains or beauty? Both are bundled into many of today’s enterprise-sized security video designs, which intelligently apply technology, smartly migrate from analog to digital and wisely solve challenges both security and business related.