Why cloud-based security solutions improve resiliency in daily operations

As many today are working from home, cloud-based services that enable us to work and meet customers remotely are more important than ever before. Many industries have been revolutionised by the cloud, and will continue to do so with burgeoning new technologies like 5G, IoT and artificial intelligence.

Cloud is also an enabler for keyless mobile-based locking. Keyless systems are in many ways IoT solutions, and IoT systems require a cloud-based ecosystem to function.

The adoption rate of the cloud technology varies from business to business, partly due to security-, privacy- and compliancy-related issues. Many benefits are up for grabs and will put pressure on companies to move forward in their cloud journeys. In this article, I’ll walk you through how cloud-based solutions improve the resilience of today’s security and access management in everyday life.

Software as a Service benefits for access control and digital locking solutions

As the name SaaS indicates, it is all about service. In lieu of the provider setting up and maintaining the applications, servers and infrastructure, all of this is done by the vendor. With access control services customers can get frequent updates without service breaks. Modern CICD processes allow us to deploy new versions easily and frequently into the cloud. This is a major benefit to both customers and vendors as compared to heavy on-premises solutions, where a software update causes high operational load. 

Modern cloud solutions can be built highly available, as an example the ABLOY BEAT solution utilises several datacenters to provide redundancy. Data is also backed up in the cloud, fully managed by Abloy, enabling fast recovery in case of incidents.

Cost is a major driver for enterprise companies to opt for cloud-based solutions. Subscription-based cloud services have superior return on investment compared to on-premises servers.

When going for SaaS, you don’t need to worry about hardware lifecycle, security updates, backups and other operations, allowing more money, resources and time to be spent on strategic core business.

Cloud technology offers scalability as well - virtual servers, load balancers and limitless storage capabilities make it possible to adapt the service to meet current needs without heavy frontloading.

Increased visibility together with decreased resource usage

As I mentioned before, cloud is an essential part of our keyless solutions as well. So how do keyless solutions and mobile credential-based systems create value for customers, compared to traditional key-based systems of access control?

Firstly, keyless solutions offer situational awareness and visibility. Keys are handed out digitally and every handout, granting of access privilege and use of access privilege leaves an audit trail.

Modern cloud solutions offer easy integration into other systems. This is possible with modern APIs, such as RESTAPI, industry best practice methods for documenting the APIs through, for example, open API, and other types of automation enabled by cloud-based services.

With the mobile device as your key, there is no need to drive around getting the right key, which is especially important in maintenance-related processes. In this area, the need for a quick response time traditionally results in low key-based security if overly permissive access rights are given to users to avoid time spent on key logistics.

Operational efficiency can also be sustainable. When we make our processes leaner, we save resources, gasoline, time and money.

Integrations and automations guarantee operational efficiency 

Integration capability in modern access control is a must, and in cloud-based solutions, the integration between two or several systems can be achieved more efficiently, and more use cases can be accomplished when compared to on-premises systems.

With a properly formulated integration, customers can save time by automating frequent tasks.
Security is increased, as all integrated systems have up-to-date information - as an example, keyholder or worker data can be transferred to the HR system. Visibility and situational awareness is improved by combining data from several sources.

By utilizing the power of integrations, you extend the lifecycle of your entire ecosystem of services.

Integration capabilities are the focus of both current and future development for ALCEA. Our solutions can be integrated into several systems.