Breaking Standards is Good

Attacking proprietary systems is en vogue but it's only breaking from standards where innovation occurs. The irony is IT players entering physical security have most seriously broken standards and their breaking of standards is driving the innovation in our market.

Take Dilip Sarangan, a very bright analyst from Frost. In his recent article (http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insight-top.pag?docid=124399129), Dilip argues that:

"The lack of standards has hurt visionary vendors/service providers and end-users alike."

and that:

"The physical security industry has survived for the past 5 decades (since the introduction of video surveillance cameras) without standards."

1. The physical security industry had NTSC/PAL, a critical standard that provided stability and growth for the last 50 years. Of course, it's not a IT standard but it is absolutely a standard and a critical factor in the growth of the market. NTSC/PAL ensured that any camera could work with any VCR or DVR. It was only when the IT players entered that legions of proprietary codecs and formats were unleased on the market to support their IP cameras. As I will continue to argue, I think this is a good thing but we too often blame the physical security people for lack of standards.

2. The standards that Dilip and other analysts talk about where not even relevant until the last 5 - 10 years. Analysts are focused on system interoperability standards, such as APIs and SDKs, to make system integration simple and inexpensive. 10 years ago, very few physical security systems were on-line. The lack of interoperability standards is a function of the youth of these technologies. In young markets, whether it physical security today or routing in the early 90s, proprietary solutions dominate.