An Education in Managing Security

• By Laura Williams
• Jul 11, 2011

The security industry is notoriously conservative. Even though it seems today as if IP cameras peer out from corners everywhere, it was just a few short years ago that the idea of connecting physical security devices via an Internet Protocol network raised more than a few eyebrows.

Despite that wary, prevailing view of IP video, Giadi Piran, cofounder of OnSSI, had a big vision for where that tiny network cable could take him.  He and his colleagues saw that end users would need some way to manage the tidal wave of data that would soon be streaming out of their cameras. So they set to work developing video management software.

But once they had developed this software, it was not immediately clear to security industry members that IP would be the next big thing. “We had to do a lot of missionary work the first few years, convincing the video surveillance industry that video over IP was the wave of the future and offered some key advantages over traditional models,” he said.

As a part of that, Piran and his colleagues crisscrossed the country demonstrating their video management products. As they gradually built up some recognition with resellers, integrators and end users, camera-manufacturing companies became interested, too, boosting the company to become profitable in its second year.

With this foundation built, OnSSI then turned its eye to the future. “Over time, we increased the product’s capabilities, filling end users’ present needs but always with an eye to the future, thinking several years out as far as business cycles, so we built in features they might not need for years to come, but would need eventually,” he said.

Piran said the experience of selling a product on the cutting-edge of security technology showed him the importance of educating industry members. “If you’re an industry thought-leader, your partners and end users depend on you to point to the trends, where things are going, and you have to be on top of that constantly, thinking not just of today but where things are likely to be several years from now,” he said. “So, as we’ve learned, the education needs to be ongoing.”