As the nation continues to recover from the worst economic crisis in recent memory, security executives across America are dealing with the difficult consequences of the fallout. Among the greatest contributors to the harsh realities that so many companies face is the growing number of vacant properties, or “dark” locations.
Larry McEvoy really digs his job. His firm, CONSOL Energy, a leading diversified energy company, helps generate two-thirds of the nation’s power supply, responsible for mining more high-quality bituminous coal than any other U.S. producer as well as the largest gas producer in Appalachia.
Back in October, I was speaking as part of a panel discussion when someone asked about the role security issues should play when an organization is entering into a joint venture. It’s an interesting question and an area where I’ve had some experience.
So what if Jose Ruano and Steve Weatherly were “blown away,” in Weatherly’s own words, by megapixel cameras. But that wasn’t really justification for a hard-nosed business decision when it came to a next generation of security video technology at the University of Miami, located in Coral Gables in south Florida.
What do a global news and information company, a large utility, a Fortune 500 electronic commerce and payment processing provider, a diverse hospital and a local government have in common?
It is hard to imagine any market sector today that is not impacted by the “Big Three” emerging technologies: Social Media, Mobility and Cloud Computing. The holiday shopping season saw “Cyber Monday” come out of nowhere to replace “Black Friday” as a traditional benchmark for consumer spending. New media and technology are being rapidly indoctrinated into our culture.
As the digital transformation of video has progressed, we’ve seen the same sorts of innovations in video that we’ve seen over the years in other realms of information technology. First came video analytics – a market segment that’s still seeing new and smarter software packages emerge every quarter. Then came innovations in storage, with virtualized servers and cloud storage, which have opened up new ways to reduce storage needs and optimize capacity.
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.
As a general rule, forecasting is a bit of guessing. Even economists, whose job it is to make sense of hardcore data and then give solid analysis, often are reduced to intelligent guessing. But security leaders know better. They know what they’ll likely face in 2012, namely terrorism, workplace violence, fraud, cybercrime, regulatory compliance, natural disasters, theft, intellectual property, brand protection, budget concerns and more – the same trends identified in Security magazine’s 2011 Security 500 report.
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