What happened?
At this year's Forum Zutritt hosted by PROTECTOR in Hanover, 19 participants discussed the future of access control. Four thematic sessions were on offer, with the discussion on holistic approaches receiving particular attention in the current issue of PROTECTOR. The central thesis put forward by the discussion participants: a comprehensive security architecture that unites access control, video, alarm systems and other systems creates added value that exceeds the sum of its individual components.
The details
At the heart of the discussion was the insight that the real benefit of integrated security systems lies not in the isolated performance of individual components, but in their interaction. According to the participants, only when information from different systems is merged, processes are aligned with one another, and events are evaluated holistically does a level of security emerge that isolated standalone solutions cannot achieve.
An important driver of this development is regulatory requirements such as the NIS-2 Directive and Germany's KRITIS Umbrella Act. At the forum, these pieces of legislation were viewed not merely as hurdles but as stabilizing factors. For the access control industry, they can form an important foundation for strategically positioning itself as a resilience partner.
Another key topic was behavioral biometrics. While classic biometric methods rely on static features such as fingerprints or iris patterns, new approaches identify individuals based on their unique movement patterns – for example, their gait. Here, too, the principle of interaction applies: what matters is not a single feature, but the combination of numerous movement parameters.
The concept of dematerialization was also discussed. This involves reducing physical components, cabling and central control units to the necessary minimum, and instead increasingly implementing functions on a software- and network-based basis. Performance in this context is not achieved through more hardware, but through the intelligent interplay of existing elements.
Context
The developments discussed at Forum Zutritt point to a clear trend: access control is moving away from isolated individual solutions towards networked, holistic security concepts. This affects not only the technical integration of access control, video and alarm systems, but also the regulatory level. NIS-2 and the KRITIS Umbrella Act are setting new framework conditions that are increasingly forcing operators of critical infrastructure and companies to engage strategically with resilience.
For the industry, this represents an opportunity for repositioning: those who understand and offer access control solutions not merely as door openers but as building blocks of a comprehensive security architecture can establish themselves as strategic partners for resilience. At the same time, technological approaches such as behavioral biometrics are fundamentally changing the understanding of identity verification – moving away from individual static features towards the analysis of complex, dynamic patterns.
Practical tips
- Security managers should assess to what extent their existing access control, video and alarm systems are already networked or are still being operated as standalone solutions.
- The requirements arising from NIS-2 and the KRITIS Umbrella Act should be analyzed at an early stage, so that regulatory requirements are used not merely as a compliance exercise but as a starting point for strategic security planning.
- When introducing new biometric methods, it is worth considering approaches that combine multiple features rather than relying on a single static feature.
- In the course of dematerialization, operators should examine whether existing hardware structures can be meaningfully supplemented or replaced by software- and network-based solutions.
Outlook
The discussions at Forum Zutritt suggest that the access control industry will increasingly orient itself towards holistic security concepts in the coming years. Regulatory requirements such as NIS-2 are likely to act as an additional catalyst, prompting companies and operators of critical infrastructure to engage more intensively with networked security architectures. At the same time, technological developments such as behavioral biometrics and dematerialization show that innovation in access control does not necessarily mean more hardware, but is increasingly based on intelligent networking and software. The current issue of PROTECTOR explores these topics in greater depth, including articles on manipulation risks in biometrics, pathways to greater cyber-physical resilience, and smart locking technology for municipalities.
