On The Editor's Desk

The remote workforce phenomenon, brought on by COVID-19 and stay-at-home directives in many of the hardest hit states, has changed, possibly forever, how companies and organizations do business. According to Gartner Research’s recent report on Remote Work, more than 48 percent of employees will continue to work remotely post COVID-19. While there are clearly some positives for moving to a remote, or hybrid workforce model, there are also some pitfalls, or challenges, to such an...

Sorry about the classic movie reference – cue that epic western movie theme music now please – but this year will be remembered as one of the most challenging in American history, and the security industry has not been immune, with the impact of this past year being felt in all facets of the industry, certainly some more than others. The 2020 M&A market, in particular, has had some wild activity. Just in the last six months alone we have seen some big deals, most notably: Allied...

I know, many of you clicked on the title thinking, “celebrate? Does this guy realize we are in part two of a pandemic?!” But, seriously, the entire world as we know it can’t wait to countdown to 2021, and distance ourselves as much as possible from a year that was fraught with uncertainty and challenges, pushing many of us to dig down to places we didn’t even know existed for strength and resilience, and to recalibrate ourselves to this – I promise I’m not going...

We here at Security System News are excited to announce the education program for our virtual SecurityNext conference — held over two afternoons on Feb. 24-25, 2021. This year’s virtual conference follows what was a highly successful inaugural SecurityNext in-person conference earlier this year in New Orleans, right before the pandemic changed in-person conferences for 2020 and the foreseeable future. I am sure we are all looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normalcy as...

Recent Q3 earnings announcements from smart home security giants ADT and Alarm.com helped to clear up the smart home picture a bit, as both companies addressed the current and future state of their partnership in light of ADT’s recent megadeal with Google earlier this year. Both company CEOs talked at length about their future plans as it relates to all parties involved, creating an interesting landscape as the race to control the smart home tightens while getting a little less murky at...

We continue to do research on, talk with industry leaders about and write on “the business impact of COVID-19” here at Security Systems News, and, well … actually … have had the topic loom as the backdrop for most, if not every, conversation we have these days. And for good reason! While there are obvious and real challenges we all face during these times, the continuing flow of new research, like the latest white paper from Axis Communications, shows that change and...

It is that time of the season — and no, please don’t cue the holiday music just yet — for making “predictions” for 2021. Yes, time to look in the crystal ball. And following last week’s blog looking at SIA’s top 10 security megatrands for 2021, I thought it was fitting to look at the International Data Corporation’s predictions, which, not surprisingly, have cloud as the top trend for 2021. The timing of this list made me smile because just this...

It is fitting the Security Industry Association (SIA) released its Security Megatrends list on the opening day, Oct. 21, of Securing New Ground (SNG), its annual conference that brings together the industry’s best to talk about current “trends” that are shaping the industry. It is also that great time of the year where we celebrate the accomplishments of industry’s brightest stars with three security legends — Denis Hébert, Min Kyriannis and Andrew Lanning —...

We here at Security Systems News were very excited to sponsor a highly successful golf outing that was recently held to benefit families in need and The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation Children’s Camp. Mission 500’s successful event brought security professionals out for a day of golf that benefited families in need as well as helped The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation Children’s Camp support those children badly injured in fires. The charity golf...

If you have been paying attention to the headlines and the many bans on facial recognition that have popped up over the past year, new survey results — showing that 68 percent of Americans believe facial recognition technology can make society safer — are certainly encouraging. Leading independent polling firm Schoen Cooperman Research recently conducted a nationwide poll on Americans’ views of facial recognition technology. The survey of 1,000 adults found that most Americans...