Allegion Acquires Isonas

Hi

Early adopter of ISONAS here so opinions and comments could (should ? :)) be construed as biased.

Before almost everybody else they had IPat the door. For those coming form the IT/Integration side of the business they were gold. One CAT 5/6/7 drpo at the door and you had access control plus you added your maglock/electric strike and you were done. They were not inexpensive but they worked. No big unwieldy cable or Power supplies or limitations a PoE switch , AT 5 and all you needed was a doors. it is good and does work. Simple product line sturdy reader/controllers. Lot of features , stability. It works with server down. No central controller needed for it to work .. When connectivity to the server resumes so does logging and updates.. Cna hold data for months of transactions with server down...It leverages IP and make thing easy for the installer.

The software was the weak point. Original versions were stable but FUGLY. Something only a techie could concoct and sell and use ...  Real users could never fall in love with the software but the darn thing worked.  They came up with an abomination called EasyWeb2015.. which was everything but easy .. flaky as ... whatever .. then they came with PureAccess. They have now a real serious product  with PureAccess and the already and alwways good to very good hardware . ISONAS now seems to have an idea to where they are headed. if they are properly handled by Allegion, the product has a path to serious Axis-like sales in the Access Control sector. All that IMO YMMV..etc...

Me

Yes, your part about the IP readers being an open 3rd party option for ACS integration, i.e. Allegion will be able to provide the resources needed to ensure the Isonas IP readers are like Mercury boards and can be integrated into mainstream ACS systems from multiple vendors.

I wonder if the Allegion ownership will eventually lead to a change in the manufacturing of the Isonas products, which are currently touted as "Made in USA".  They will need the get the unit cost down in order to really make this thing work.

Very cool concept but, I couldn't get past their readers that looked like 1980s tech.

Have worked with Isonas (the old software and reader / controllers) we just ripped out the last system recently. I personally was never a fan and the software was horrible. The concept of trying to be open I understand but I personally don’t see this a business model that will be successful. If you want open hardware you use mercury which has been proven and provides a greater base of vendors if you should choose to switch software.

On the other hand we are a Allegion business partner and do a fair amount of work with the NDE and LE locks integrated into access systems.My first thought was this would provide a cloud based software that could provide online wireless capability which is not the case with engage.

ISONAS appear to align well with ALLEGION'S channel initiatives and add new technologies to ALLEGION  portifolio. Having edge- computing technology that provide innovative access control solution.

The weak point of Isonas has always been that they are a proprietary solution( hardware and software). Unless they can get broader support by the AC software manufacturers, they will remain a niche solution since Axis, Mercury and HID already are. Allegion might be able to do some bundling with their other product lines but still will limit the growth. 

I am under the impression that Allegion may have acquired them primarily for their IP. Evidently, ISONAS licensed some element of their technology to Allegion for the NDE product. Not sure, but several years ago when Allegion was first revealing the NDE product, there was something there, provided by ISONAS.

I just got a call from an end-user stating that "I need to change my Isonas access control platform because it is now end-of-life"

Has anyone else heard this?

A note I forgot to mention: Upgrading to the RC-04 readers from anything made before that allows the use of mobile credentials, i.e the RC-04 readers have BLE, which is useful.