Fifty percent of security professionals said labor shortages were a top challenge last year, driving them to re-evaluate their technology stack in 2023 and seek solutions that help streamline tasks, automate processes and enhance team efficiency, according to Genetec’s 2022 State of Physical Security Report.

As such, unifying video surveillance, access control, automatic license plate recognition, communications technology and other valuable functions can make an operator's job easier and reduce costs and training. Built-in analytics or decision support features can further streamline operations.

Modernizing access control will be a priority in 2023

The report also showed that 67% of organizations are planning to invest in access control system (ACS) modernization in 2023, putting it at the top of the physical security tech investment list. They are seeking modern ACSs that include built-in cyber defenses, health monitoring tools and higher levels of automation to help eliminate the weak points of legacy systems and provide capabilities like mobile credentials, biometrics and cloud-connected controllers and services.

Demand for ready-to-deploy cloud-connected appliances

Hybrid-cloud deployments are gaining traction, with some organizations opting to conserve security devices and infrastructure investments that are not cloud-ready and others having bandwidth limitations or the need to keep some data processing and storage onsite. As businesses rationalize costs, concerns and approach to cloud migration, there will likely be an increase in demand for ready-to-deploy hybrid-cloud appliances. This infrastructure will support edge-computing workloads and make existing devices cloud-compatible, while helping to centralize access to systems and data across many sites.

Improving cybersecurity continues to be a top concern

According to the report, 36% of IT and security professionals are looking to invest in cybersecurity-related tools to improve physical security in 2023. While a more holistic, automated approach to defending against threats will take precedence, proactive security architecture planning and procurement measures will also come into play. These measures may include:

• Replacing legacy equipment before succumbing to end-point failures to better mitigate risks
• Using intelligent maintenance tracking tools and metrics to improve forecasting
• Relying on external expertise to adapt security architecture planning as supply chain lags continue
• Standardizing on solutions built with cybersecurity and privacy in mind to enhance resilience across the partner ecosystem

Other notable trends impacting the industry in 2023 are the extraction of physical security data pushing digital transformation forward, growing collaboration and convergence of IT and physical security teams and the continuation of remote work driving increased the need for space utilization data.

These predictions are informed by insights from 3,700 security leaders worldwide in a survey conducted by Genetec. For more information on the report, click here.