COVER STORY
To the edge of tomorrow Tech-celeration in the security industry by Duncan Cooke, Business Development, Stratus Technologies with contribution from Richard Huison, Regional General Manager for UK & Europe, Gallagher
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he security industry, like every industry, is in an era of rapid change as digital transformation (DX) takes hold and revolutionises what is possible. Over the past 18 months, in part due to the global pandemic, DX adoption has proliferated around the world. This so-called tech-celeration has a profound impact on the security industry but it is far from a step into the unknown. What, exactly does the tech-celeration mean for the security industry? It means building highly capable and flexible security solutions that can do more than ever before, with less. It means a combined software and hardware approach with resilience designed in at every stage, from
4 | August 2021 | IN SECURITY
the data centre to the edge of the network. It means simple, secure and autonomous security solutions, fit for tomorrow. Tech-celeration The term tech-celeration was coined by The Economist in a recent article that quotes McKinsey research in consumer and digital adoption . According to McKinsey, the shutdowns of the pandemic caused a five-year leap in digital adoption in just eight weeks. The effects and implications of the pandemic are easy to observe in the security industry. Almost overnight, people, including security managers, were working remotely, social distancing was required for those who needed
to be onsite, and security suddenly included healthcare considerations such as body temperature monitoring and contact tracing. Despite the new circumstances and pressures of the pandemic, and despite the ‘new normal’ which is taking shape as the world slowly emerges from Covid-19, the security industry is actually not taking a big step into the unknown. The reason we can see the future of security so clearly is because we are talking about an acceleration in the adoption of digital transformation. The technology required to meet today’s challenges already exists, and the right technology is flexible. But… digital transformation demands that we take a holistic
