For many starters in the field or people intending to purchase access control technology, this is a fundamental question that come mind. In simple terms, it is an electronic system for granting, managing and securing authorised access into a building, facility or network.
In a very diverse set of organisational contexts, it is used to control who gets access to what, for what purpose and for how long. So it is not just about giving authorised access, duration of access is also important.
On a different level, it is about tactical restriction of access against unexpected intrusion. This is exactly what the technology does.
Practically, most of the technologies in this domain operate on two different levels. The first level is authentication. This is a process of verifying identify of a person or device seeking access. Second is authorisation which then grants access to the seeker.
Most times access control technology is use in organisations like banks, energy, pharmaceutical and intellectual property companies. These are areas where people make use of highly sensitive data on seconds to second basis.
Core Components of Access Control Technology
While access control systems differ in terms of complexity and use cases, there are basic components that most of them have in common. These components make everything to work in a synchronised process for the purpose of delivering maximum security. And here they are.
User Facing Component – This one consists mostly of access control keypad, card reader and digital access cards. These tools provide an interactive point between registered users seeking access and the central control system. In some organisations nowadays, smartphone apps are now being used to unlock doors when matched with a card reader.
The main thing is instant recognition of user credential when presented to the card reader. Interestingly, the level of personalisation here makes it possible to identify the person that had last recent access to a room, facility or network in the event of any loss or damage.
In different other settings, some access control technology make use of biometrics and PIN input in order to authenticate and authorize access.
Administrative Component – Obviously, there are people bound to be responsible for management of electronic access control technology within an organisation. These are the people usually in charge of the administrative component.
Through dashboard or portal, the persons in charge of security or IT management can be able to do things creating new user profiles, defining access level, hardware configuration and deleting files as well. With an API (application programmable interface), some of these and other tasks can be automated.
Hardware Component – Basically, this one include things like access control server, control panels and digital door locks. Some of the doors that requires biometric fingerprint falls under this category of access control technology component. For people that intending to procure this type of technology or their company or organization, you have to think through the choice of using locks that require biometric input or access cards.
Another important thing worth mentioning about the hardware component is alarm systems. In a complete system, you are likely to find inclusion of smart sensor powered fire, burglary and intrusion detection alarms.
By connecting these alarms to your access control system, you’ll always be notified when there is an intrusion attempt. And that will make it possible to take prompt protective action. When there is a threat like fire incident, these systems will automatically and temporally unlock your electronic doors in addition to sounding an alarm. This will prevent the incident of people being trapped in fire by the strong locking system.
Types of Access Control Technologies
In most cases, the size of your organization of the peculiarity of current needs will determine the type of access control systems you’ll buy. On the other hand, this can range from simple to the large scale complex systems. However, security still remains the paramount priority.
Cloud Hosted Access Control System
For many interesting reasons, a lot of enterprise hardware and software operations are now being moved to the cloud. And there are some benefits to it as well. Some of these include disaster recovery, mobility and cost reduction. Access control system is not an exception.
For organizations with multiple operating locations, having your system hosted in the cloud will enable the manager to grant or deny access from anywhere.
In turn, this makes for prompt and timely management of the whole system. Specifically, people can respond faster to unfolding security issues without driving to or being in the office. Remember, unexpected things happen from time to time.
Mobile Centric Control System
These days, forward thinking companies are now leveraging widespread smartphone technology to build, deploy and manage security systems. As noted earlier, the level of personalization in the mobile space provides opportunity to use 100% unique identifiers for granting access in different contexts.
With Bluetooth and Near Field Communication reader, people can now gain access to exclusive domains where their credentials are registered. In some cases, these emerging technologies are replacing the security that use to do these check and authorization processes manually. Who wouldn’t want to save money in their day to day operations?
IoT Based Access Control System
One thing you have to note here is that proliferation of internet of things (IoT) devices poses great security challenges as well. This fact holds true whether you are looking it from the household, business enterprise or large scale smart city project perspectives.
To provide tightly managed security in this context, most companies make use of IoT platforms and protocols. This helps them to identify, authenticate and authorize devices even when users are not seeking access in an office door.
Conclusion
While this is not meant to be an exhaustive piece on the fundamentals of access control technology, starting here will put you in the right direction. Judging by that fact that there are still many sides and details about it, engaging directly with an expert will enlighten you more.
Finally, for whatever reason you are getting interested in this technology, do not go for cheap offers.
