Cybersecurity
Physical Security
Physical security here means door access, cameras, alarms and monitoring connected into one system you manage from a screen. The older way treated each of those as separate equipment. The newer way runs them over your network and the cloud, which is why they now sit on a technology shelf.
- 1 company on the shelf
- Coverage
Buyer's checklist
Eight questions that decide this purchase
Think these through before you buy. Answer what you can and your quote comes back faster. Skip what you cannot, and we will work through it with you.
- 01
How many sites need coverage, and by when?
- 02
How many doors need control, inside and outside, and do any already have hardware you want to keep?
- 03
Which credentials do you want: cards, keypads, phones, biometrics?
- 04
Do you want cameras, and roughly how many inside and outside at each site? Which capabilities matter, such as night vision, license plate reading or people counting?
- 05
If cameras are already installed, will you keep and integrate them or replace them?
- 06
How long must video be kept, and does a regulation set that period?
- 07
Who will run the system day to day: your staff, a provider, or a mix? Do you want alarm monitoring or guards as well?
- 08
Will you buy the hardware outright or pay for it as a managed service, and do you have a floor plan to share with the designer?
No company matches every box you checked
That usually means the combination is rare, not impossible. Clear a filter, or add the service and we will go find who can do it.
Capabilities come from published supplier material. We confirm them for your addresses before anything is quoted.
More on what it is
Access control replaces or backs up the metal key with a credential: a badge, a key card, a fob, or an app on a phone. From a management console you decide, for each door and each person or group, which days and times entry is allowed, and the system keeps a record of who went where and when. A typical setup has four parts: the console, a mobile app, a cloud service that links the app to the building, and the hardware that locks and unlocks the doors.
Two developments have made it easier to install. Door hardware can connect over a low-power wireless link, so a door can be added without running cable. And a bridging controller can bring an older electric strike or magnetic lock into the new system, so working hardware does not have to be torn out.
Video has changed in the same direction. Surveillance is commonly delivered as a managed service that you view through a web portal or a phone app, in place of a recorder in a back office. Cameras increasingly analyze the picture themselves, turning footage into searchable events, counts of people or objects, and maps of where activity happens. Storage can combine memory in the camera with an archive in the cloud.
Four things catch buyers out. How long video is kept varies widely by plan and by camera model, from about a week to a year, and that sets how far back an investigation can look. Some analytics exist only on certain camera models. Keeping your existing cameras can limit which new features you get. And wireless locks and sensors run on batteries, so someone has to replace them.
Who needs it
- You still hand out metal keys, which get lost, copied and passed around, and you have no record of who entered.
- You run more than one site and want one console and one standard for all of them.
- An auditor will ask for an access log or a monitoring report.
- You are a tenant in a shared building and need to control your own doors, alarm and cameras.
- You protect equipment, inventory or intellectual property that lives in a building.
- You run retail or public space and want to understand how people move through it, where queues form, and whether you are over an occupancy limit.
- You have no security specialist on staff and expect a third party to run the system.
If you have one door, a handful of trusted people and nothing an auditor cares about, a good lock is enough.
Signs you need it
- Someone has to scrub through hours of recorded video by hand to find one incident.
- Cameras are installed, and nobody watches them, so you learn about an event afterward.
- Cameras, door access and alarms are separate systems that do not talk to each other.
- Some doors have no access control at all.
- Nobody clearly owns security, in-house or outside.
How IT Raven helps
Add Physical Security to your quote list and tell us your sites, your doors and what you have installed today. A floor plan helps a great deal. A person takes that to the access control and video providers in our 500+ partner network and sorts them on what fits: whether they can reuse your existing hardware, the retention and analytics you need, and whether they will run the system for you.
In a shared building the landlord usually controls the outside entrance, so we ask about that before anyone designs around a door you do not control. Cameras and door controllers also ride your network, so we look at Business Connectivity and the local network at each site at the same time.
We stay on one thread through design, installation and the handover to whoever will run it, and the same team is here when you add a site.
How buying works
The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.
Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.
- 01
Build your quote list
Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.
- 02
We bring back real options
A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.
- 03
We handle the order and install
Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.
- 04
We stay on your account
Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.