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Montreal-based unified security provider Genetec has announced its new Security Centre SaaS product, built with cybersecurity and privacy at its core. The product enables management of a vast array of devices with a straightforward subscription price.
The world of physical security and its intersection with technology can be paradoxical; technologists might only sometimes consider cameras, door access systems, boom gates, and the ilk as part of the network infrastructure on their properties. Yet, the physical security team might only sometimes appreciate the days are long gone when their hardware is connected by coaxial cable, and instead is now made up of IoT devices on the network.
Such equipment needs patching, sound password hygiene regimes, and more, to prevent your humble camera above the back door from being an intrusion vector by a malicious party who uses it to move laterally within your network.
At the same time, the operators of these security systems need fast, reliable access to information when it matters. This isn't only the live image on a camera, or the log of who has come in and out of a door, but also the ability to rapidly search through historical events based on snippets of information. "A white vehicle around midday," for example. Or, "a man in a red shirt."
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Traditionally, hardware manufacturers do a great job of making hardware, and anecdotally less of a great job in making software. So, your security operators might well be running a plethora of crusty and arcane desktop apps with one for the cameras, one for door access systems, one for boom gates, and on and on.
Or, alternatively, you could use the Genetec platform and bring all these divergent devices and concerns to a single platform and single pane of glass, namely the Genetec Security Centre and the associated suite of other Genetec offerings.
The platform unites video management, access control, license plate recognition, IP communication, and a host of other things, and is heavily channel-focused. Genetec's customers are integrators, managed service providers, and other channel partners, and it is their customers who are the office buildings, prisons, roads, arenas, concert halls, warehouses, airports, schools, and so on who seek their help in designing and implementing physical security solutions.
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Pictured: A Genetec sample control centre in the Washington DC Experience Centre (DCXC). At the time of the photo, this is running the traditional Windows-based Security Centre, not Security Centre SaaS, but illustrates what a security operations centre using Genetec's products may look like.
That's Genetec in a nutshell, and its unification is resonating with the market. The company has seen its headcount grow 77% since 2019, its ranking in the video space move to the number one spot, and its ranking in access control and license plate recognition rise from number 10 back in 2016 to number two as of 2022. Genetec reports that many customers adopt their product for one specific purpose, and then find they can grow by leveraging many other features already embedded in the platform.
This new announcement by Genetec continues to disrupt the physical security marketplace by providing the world's first enterprise-grade unified security system that blends physical security and cybersecurity.
Disruption is core to Genetec's DNA, coming from the top; Genetec President Pierre Racz (pictured at the top of the page) says his company is "the wrecking crew" - #WreckingCrew - that takes as its mantra the famous Pablo Picasso quote, "every act of creation is first an act of destruction."
It is with this philosophy Genetec has announced its new Security Centre SaaS offering. It's a cloud-based product that requires no on-premises server hardware and can work with direct-to-cloud IP cameras and systems.
Genetec says its new SaaS offering can be summed up in one word - "easy." It makes equipment easy to find, easy to procure, easy to deploy, easy to use, and easy to maintain, according to Genetec VP product marketing Christian Morin.
It's designed to give customers connectivity anytime, anywhere, to improve their cybersecurity posture, and to ensure continued access to innovation along with resiliency, Morin said.
Security Centre SaaS takes Genetec's previous cloud offerings and brings them together with new features in an all-in-one unified offering. Technically, it is made up of these components:
- the cloud piece, namely all the back-end services to make it work
- appliances like cameras and access systems that are physically installed in your buildings, that are integrated either as direct-to-cloud or managed appliances with edge computing
- user experience, with web, mobile, and desktop options
- ordering, deployment, and management tools
Under the hood, Genetec has reworked its software in modular ways that work equally well whether on-premises or on the cloud, allowing individual components to reside wherever it makes sense for the business.
For the customers and channel partners it means a lightweight, rapidly deployed product, that can be up and running in minutes. New hardware can be ordered quickly, and existing items can be discovered and added on the fly.
Security Centre SaaS will be available globally, out of four data centres at launch: Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, and Australia. Genetec has a partnership with Microsoft and indicated it can light up other regions based on demand, taking advantage of Microsoft Azure's regions.
The product is expected to be available in mid-April and will be launched during the ISC West 2024 conference, the International Security Conference and Expo, held at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
Pricing comes in two forms, with premium and standard plans. Premium pricing is $US 199 per device per year, and standard pricing is $US 149 per device per year. This means even a small business can easily take up Security Centre SaaS without a significant outlay; 10 cameras and two door access controls, for instance, will run you not even $US 2K for the year - obviously, the hardware itself excluded. For this price, you could run an enterprise security product for your personal home camera, unironically. And, if you're running a stadium or an airport you get the benefits of an enterprise-grade system with storage, resilience, and ongoing innovation across your security hardware fleet.
The standard pricing provides device connections, unified monitoring, cybersecurity and privacy, automation, and global sync. The premium plan brings in ID and access review, case management, a REST API, and single-sign-on (SSO).
"Less is more," said Genetec senior product marketing manager Laurent Villeneuve. The new Genetec Security Centre SaaS means "less time spent on certification, manual quoting and ordering, installation, maintenance, and lifecycle management," he said, "and more projects, more continuous engagement, and more happy customers."
Genetec says its new Security Centre SaaS is aimed squarely at three separate audiences.
One of these is, of course, enterprise end-users, who it says can now have the richness of enterprise-grade unified security solutions deployed fast and with continuous value.
However, as Genetec is primarily a channel-driven company, its other two audiences are the partners, whom it breaks up into SaaS-hesitant channel partners and SaaS-ready channel partners.
For the SaaS-hesitant crowd, Genetec says the shift to the cloud is happening but does not need to be scary; the benefits outweigh the risk. For the SaaS-ready crowd, Genetec says the new Security Centre SaaS will provide new perspectives into the end-user needs that will help them adapt and grow their offering.
Either way, Genetec states Security Centre SaaS will help channel partners generate more margin per unit of effort.
"It's modern SaaS with continuous value delivery that reduces consumption gap and churn," Villeneuve said. "It is fast, non-stop, radically easier," he said. "And most importantly, it's Genetec."
"Its enterprise-grade feature set is built on 25 years of experience connecting millions of devices and securing organisations around the world," Villeneuve said.
Genetec country manager ANZ George Moawad said “Current approaches to SaaS have undercut the role of channel partners, whom we see as central to customer and project success. Security Center SaaS represents an important opportunity for our systems integrators. It means better margins and long-term customer satisfaction, with no additional investment in time or resources on the part of partners."
Security Centre SaaS will be available in Australia and New Zealand, as well as globally, in April 2024 from certified Genetec partners. It will be offered in tiered subscription plans based on the number of connections. It will be showcased for the first time at ISC West at booth #13062.