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Future trends of access control

The appearance of service packages in the access reader industry is the result of rapidly increasing security requirements.

Area Sales Manager Ari Rossi recently presented at SECTECH exhibition’s Open Forum about future trends of access control. For those unable to attend, we summarize Ari’s major topics below.

A notable, powerful strategy (Key Diversification) for countering growing access control threats has been steadily gaining acceptance, at the same time mobile device access control credentialing continues spreading rapidly. Additionally, access technology’s growing complexity is pushing more system integrators to wholly outsource reader and transponder coding and customization to manufacturers. Pre-programmed readers and tags, delivered directly to site for installation and distribution, offers significant savings for many integrators.

User accessibility of readers is another growing imperative, impacting both reader design and siting. While readers must be easy for all to use, they must also remain easily installed. Deployment cannot be time-consuming, and after installation, readers must remain functional and reliable without constant maintenance. Growing sensitivity to the environment has made updatable, durable devices increasingly attractive to the industry, marginalizing brands possessing shorter, more limited lifespans.

Compare service packages before choosing

The appearance of service packages in the access reader industry is the result of rapidly increasing security requirements. When multi-site businesses require site-specific security keys for a project they tender, the resourcing integrators require to code readers and cards can pose a burden for some. While some already manage all their coding internally, many others prefer outsourcing reader and transponder coding and its related security key management through manufacturer service packages. The convenience of readers and transponders pre-coded and delivered directly to site also engenders significant savings in resourcing when learning the technology, maintaining and managing security keys is no longer needed. For integrators with numerous sites and thousands of uniquely coded readers, outsourcing can become very attractive: they only need to manage their customer site’s configuration details.

However, open, standardized MIFARE® DESFire central benefit (assuring compatibility between different manufacturers) can actually be endangered if an integrator is not careful when choosing a manufacturer and its key management service. How so? Because some manufacturers sell service packages that retain ownership of their reader configurations. This forces integrators to deploy only that manufacturer’s readers at their sites – which ‘vendor-locks’ them.

By contrast, Idesco’s security key management service packages – even for very uniquely customized configurations – will never vendor-lock you. You can update your system without replacing Idesco readers because they are also readily update-able. If your customer migrates to a key diversified configuration, don’t worry: all new Idesco DESFire readers will be built with that as a configurable feature. Simply update them with a configuration card, at no extra charge. If you or your customer migrates to another device manufacturer, the configuration of your current Idesco devices’ may be retained by you as you demand.