When’s the last time you reviewed the services that your security integrator is offering? If it’s been more than a year, or perhaps even a few months, I’m certain that you’ll find that there are more choices and greater flexibility in the deployment of those choices.

Optical turnstiles are viewed as a growing trend in entrance control, currently dominating the speedgate market, according to IMS Research. As a security measure, optical turnstiles restrict or control access to a building or secured area.

A survey of IT managers shows gaps in access risk management programs, but also reveals that IT managers are very aware of their needs and what they have to do to address them.

I’ve written previously about the need to embrace our corporate or institutional culture and the language of business into enterprise physical security. All too often, we practical folks engaged in the day-to-day operations of our departments dismiss these concepts as superfluous or mere hoops to jump through to please some higher authority. As I’ve been known to preach about, regularly, is the need to market our services to our customers, both internal and external. One “corporate speak” method of marketing our work with the value added benefit of guiding our decision making is in the form of value statements.

I’m always amazed at how many of my colleagues still rely on a significant amount of manual data entry to their access control systems. Often, a large amount of employee information is entered at the badging station or after-the-fact at the security office.

Hotels face a universal challenge: how to manage security without encroaching on guests’ privacy, comfort and experience. Safeguarding hotel guests requires a multi-pronged security program that starts with a well-trained staff and includes security officers, closed circuit television systems, electronic access control and appropriate lighting and landscaping that ensures the identification and prevention of crime.

In today’s technological world, the focus of access control and identification are mainly electronic – utilizing identification cards, biometrics, numeric keypads and passwords. One critical component of access control and identification that is routinely over looked is the use of people.

Failure to maintain an egress as well as failing to protect people from smoke and fire are all too common, yet easy to discern. Better yet, all are preventable through improved staff performance or implementing affordable solutions. Here is a list of ten typical life safety violations along with solutions that can help keep facilities safer for visitors and staff.

At this summer’s Google I/O meeting, attendees were given a sneak peek at Android@Home, a project Google has been working on that will let us control everything in our home right from our Android phones.