As the security market catches up with the rest of the technology world, more customer’s are starting to see that a proprietary solution (or closed architecture solution) is a risky investment. That being said, vendors and manufacturers are still introducing these solutions and customers are still buying them.
As a company, we choose to sell open architecture technology because we feel that it gives customer’s the most flexibility and the freedom to choose the best technology for each device (i.e. cameras, software, card readers, control boards, servers, etc).
Before we share our list of reasons why Open Architecture technology is a better choice, let’s first take a look at the difference between Closed and Open Architecture:
Closed Architecture
Closed architecture is technology that is proprietary. This means that the solution only works with devices manufactured by the same company. An example would be an access control manufacturer that makes readers, software and panels that only work with each other. A better example, is a video surveillance company that makes software, cameras and servers that only talk to each other.
The argument with closed architecture is that everything is made by the same company and it will work perfectly with each other. And, if something goes wrong, there is only one person to blame.
I met with a client this week to discuss a project that is currently in progress. When we touched on the subject about administrator and user rights on the video surveillance and access control system, he told me that he was surprised at how often he finds systems at his facilities (phone systems, other security systems, etc) that still have default username and passwords.
