What is Access Control as a Service (ACaaS)?
The familiar cloud-driven metamorphosis of business software, communications, and data storage has now begun to disrupt physical security as well. Businesses that have until now relied on locally hosted servers as well as proprietary security systems are beginning to shift toward cloud-managed platforms due to reduced operating costs, easier management, and enhanced mobility. Among the major new trends and services impacting this move to the cloud is access control as a service (ACaaS) where management of keys, access permissions, facilities, users and even identification is shifted from on-premises installed software as well as specialized dedicated servers, to cloud platforms you can access from anywhere. It’s clear the adoption of ACaaS has also been motivated by even greater security trends within the business community.
Enterprises that, for some time, now began shifting security toward the cloud have started merging access control management with cloud video surveillance systems, cloud video analytics, AI-enabled solutions, cloud storage as well as a central control security ops center.
This unification strategy increases both operational efficiency as well as physical safety. Being cloud innovators in terms of cloud video management systems (VMS) with AI-based video analytics and scalable cloud infrastructure, we are directly involved and witness of this process and the evolving of the access control solutions becoming the access control a piece of an bigger whole along with cameras, analytics, credentials and operational data.
What Is Access Control as a Service (ACaaS)?
Access control as a service (ACaaS) is a cloud-based approach to access control management within buildings, facilities, rooms, or secured spaces. Instead of storing the access control database and software in-house on their servers, businesses rely on solutions that host both (or the software part) offsite. ACaaS is defined by the management by the owner of: a cloud service the user's physical and logical location access duration credentials provided by other organizations to whom, where and when entry and exit will be possible.
ACaaS adheres to the software as a service (SaaS) paradigm.
The subscription model provides upgrades, enhanced security, and remote management and administration services from a provider rather than the business owning the hardware and managing the application and databases in house. A modern cloud access control management system usually comprises:
- User & credentials management.
- Role based access credentials (RBAC).
- Manage access points (doors, turnstiles, etc).
- Manage access from smart phone credentials.
- Mobile credentials.
- Remote administration.
- Management of visitors.
- Audit logs and reporting.
- Multi-site management.
- Software integration/API support and back-up/disaster recovery.
The Security Industry Association (SIA) identifies cloud as a major trend driving change in physical security technology globally.
How ACaaS Works
On the face of it, this appears very straightforward for end users, but most contemporary cloud-based ACaaS installations rely on a number of individual elements collaborating. A conventional architecture for a cloud-based solution could include:
- Access control readers positioned at a wide variety of doors and other access points.
- Electronic door locks and controllers that administer a security decision.
- Controllers or gateway devices that are linked to the cloud by some means.
- Access control cloud management software hosted within the internet.
- Administrative dashboards that are accessible via web or mobile apps.
A system user presents credentials such as a smart card or smartphone app, PIN, or biometrics and then the access control system authenticates the user and grants or denies them access based on their permitted levels of access.
Events are all logged within the access control software hosted in the cloud allowing administrators to obtain and review a detailed audit trail in real-time.
It removes the need for on-site personnel being required to network to a central system and instead means permissions can be updated and controlled remotely. This benefit becomes particularly noticeable when businesses operate from several offices, campuses or sites such as retail or distribution.
How ACaaS Connects with Modern Security Ecosystems
No longer islands of technology, access control systems now integrate. Companies are leveraging their security cameras, their cloud storage, their AI analysis, and their BI to work in concert with access control. If an employee badges into a controlled access space, for example, a connected cloud VMS may not only log the access event but also pull relevant footage from security cameras in the vicinity.
The security team can check the cameras to see if the individual wearing the employee’s badge looks anything like them in real time.
Combined with modern video analytic capabilities - for example, the ability to detect if employees attempt to force their way in, piggyback on another person’s entry, hang around too long in a space, and the like - organizations are moving away from simply logging security events and into the active monitoring that will better safeguard their premises and data assets. The advent of Generative AI now adds a new layer to these AI-based platforms – the capacity to generate automatic summaries, assist with reporting and investigation.
Key Advantages of ACaaS
Lower infrastructure costs
Many traditional access control systems are reliant on servers, database administration, and ongoing maintenance of your infrastructure. Access as a service removes many of these. You leave the majority of infrastructure responsibilities to the provider of the software.
Scalability
You can scale with demand adding and removing users, doors, sites, or even buildings without re-tooling your existing hardware.
As businesses grow, this is a crucial advantage over traditional access control systems, particularly if your enterprise spans numerous locations.
Remote Administration
A user can quickly be denied access remotely. Granting of access permission can take minutes or even seconds depending on the application, which became particularly critical during hybrid and remote work eras.
Automated updates
Software security updates, bug fixes and new feature deployments are handled automatically by cloud providers and made available to you in a hassle-free manner.
Better Business Continuity
Many cloud-based providers embed within their solution disaster recovery, fail-safe measures, distributed hardware and resiliency for maximum uptime in all conditions.
Unified Facility Management. Better Visibility
One single dashboard to give the organisation’s security teams access and visibility across all sites rather than monitoring a number of separate disparate access control system applications.
Common Use Cases
Corporate Offices
For organizations wanting to control who gets into which areas of the building or managing guest entry into a main entrance and various restricted work areas, ACaaS can be deployed across an organization and its remote offices.
Retailers manage multiple store locations, across large geographical regions from a single interface. For larger store areas they need to control access tostockrooms and restricted back office spaces.
Hospitals and medical centers protect patient areas and records, as well as restricting entry into pharmacies, labs and sensitive treatment areas via ACaaS.
A university or school campus is an obvious place that needs to manage a very large user base of students, staff, vendors and visitors, and requires full logging for all door accesses. ACaaS facilitates this easily.
Industrial Operations
Large industrial sites may require access to certain parts of a production environment to be limited, access to hazardous areas or be used for intellectual property protection.
Multi-tenant Buildings
Property managers frequently implement a cloud-based door security solution to help them manage visitor entries and guest accounts efficiently. The system is cloud hosted, so can be accessed by their team on the go and all user permissions managed through a simple interface.
ACaaS Market Overview
Demand grows for access control technology, due to organizations updating their on-premise security systems. It’s expected that by the early 2030s, the size of the global access control market will more than double – from nearly $10 billion now to more than $18 billion – with cloud-managed systems driving growth. That was according to “Access Control Systems Market Share, Growth, Size, Trends, & Regional Forecast 2023-2030” from Fortune Business Insights.
Cloud management also is grabbing increasing share from traditional physical security technology.
Physical security systems are moving to the cloud, thanks to increased demands for security, flexibility, cybersecurity and remote monitoring, Omdia stated in a recent research paper. “Mobile credentials will continue to make progress in replacing existing credentials and will emerge as an extremely competitive and disruptive factor in this space over the next few years,” it continued. Market forecasts for “smart building” trends, hybrid workplaces and unified security solutions will only accelerate adoption of ACaaS around the world. "Migrating to cloud-managed physical security systems is a huge evolution of the security industry-perhaps the single most significant technical transformation of the sector in the last 20 to 30 years."
It's a common refrain heard today from integrators, security experts and CISOs and CSOs at large enterprises.
Popular ACaaS Providers
The market includes both established security manufacturers and cloud-native providers.
- Brivo
- Avigilon Alta
- Kisi
- Genetec
- LenelS2
- Honeywell
- Johnson Controls
- Verkada
- Feenics
- Salto KS
Various solutions provide unique cloud architectures, integrations, credentials, and deployment strategies. You’ll want to assess your organization’s security needs, potential to scale up, the compliance demands it faces and other systems it will integrate with to get a proper comparison.
The Future of ACaaS
Organizations today want more than just reports detailing every single event related to their physical security devices. Instead, many are hoping that security systems offer actionable intelligence and insight into operational activities. We believe cloud-based access control platforms of the near-future will be more integrated with other cloud-based and on-premise systems such as:
- Cloud video management systems
- Video analytics
- Occupancy monitoring
- Building automation systems
- Identity management platforms
- Generative AI tools
- Cloud storage services
By integrating with these various technologies and creating new ones, we predict that access control will become an increasingly valuable source of data within an organization’s operations, in turn creating smarter, more secure, and user-friendly facilities.
Access Control as a Service has made it possible for businesses of any size to achieve physical security by placing access management in the cloud to provide flexibility, scalability, manageability, and integration potential.
Because cloud video surveillance, video analytics, Generative AI, and cloud storage technologies are constantly improving, cloud-hosted access control solutions are quickly being embraced as part of the comprehensive security infrastructure.
Access control will likely emerge as a center-piece in future secure organizations that need more out of their building security infrastructure, such as connecting together video surveillance, video analytics, and cloud storage with a single cloud-based platform.
See what modern security infrastructure can accomplish by researching VXG, and see how its cloud video management and powerful cloud storage platform can help bring video surveillance and access control into the 21st century.
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