The growing scale of corporate security systems is among the key drivers of IT integration as users seek to centrally manage all security assets.
This trend itself has spawned the concept of situation management -- the use of integrated security and information systems to plan and execute precise responses to specific security incidents.
“The cost of managing security is on the rise,” said Gal Oron, president of Americas for Israel-based Orsus Solutions. “The industry is responding by combining technology onto a common platform.”
DVRs, NVRs, access and identity management systems, storage, video analytics and other systems are being tied together logically through common IT interfaces. The result is integrated situation management.
The process is necessary because of the amount of information security command centers must process.
“There’s an overload of information at the command center,” Oron said. “An operation that once had 70 cameras now has 700. The human sector is the same, but it must manage an overflow of information. Organizations face a choice -- bring in more people or work more efficiently with better technology.”
Orsus’ solution, The Situator, is a single, unified system that can pull together data from various inputs and direct a response. The system is built on a physical and logical layer
The physical layer consolidates all the features of a security system -- including access management, identity management, alarms, video and video analytics -- which can then be managed through a single Windows-based interface. Security systems from other vendors who support open interfaces, including Lenel, Axis, Verint and iomage, can connect into the Situator.
Policies are mapped into the system in the logical layer. Security managers use a graphical menu to set up specific policies and procedures to be followed in the event of certain kinds of security situations. The processing is done within the system. When there is an event, the Situator issues a set of instructions to the pre-defined responders.
“We work by triggers and actions. The system sets up a sequence of responses on the event of a bomb threat, abandoned vehicle or unauthorized entry,” Oron said. “It’s where you organize people, policy and production. It’s very simple and smart. There’s a lot of logic, but hidden from the end user.”
The system provides personnel with the appropriate response based on policy. Information is sent to security operatives, remotely if necessary. The system records when responders take specific action and then prompts the command center to take the next steps.
Once the Situator is in place, security and IT departments have the tools to work together to create a business process. Oron says it involves three phases -- planning, action and improvement.
With planning, enterprises now have tools to set up a policy response. Anything can be planned for. The action phase takes in actual responses to incidents and alarms, or in some organizations, drills. The improvement phase consists of debriefing, analyzing and evaluating the action phase. This feeds back to planning, and the process cycle begins again.
Although it seems counterintuitive, in an emergency you don’t want people making decisions on the fly. You want personnel to follow established procedures, ideally with preparatory training. An event management system spells those procedures out and makes it easy to implement and centrally manage.
“Ninety percent of the response can be planned in advance,” Oron said. “Even in cases of the other 10 percent, you want your personnel going through the track you want them to. You don’t want them thumbing through binders nor making numerous phone calls. You want to make that information available to them and make sure they follow procedures and policy.”