Long Beach PSIM Integration Challenges

Representatives from the Port of Long Beach and their consultant discussed key challenges in integrating and deploying their PSIM system [link no longer available] (this is a project Proximex [link no longer available] recently announced and SecuritySquared profiled [link no longer available]).

The most interesting issues discussed:

• Long Beach requires 14 to 18 systems to be integrated, which is on the high end even for ports (Long Beach is the 2nd busiest port in the US). Most large corporations only require 3 to 6 systems to be integrated.
• Long Beach uses military grade systems (including SONAR and RADAR). These proved to be especially difficult to integrate as they were less likely to be supported 'off the shelf'
• "Lots of companies" claimed to meet their needs but only 5 met their needs. This is consistent with my experience. For instance, I know of over 20 small companies around the world but we only track a small number of them.
• Determining 3rd party support for subsystems was not easy. The consultant describes that he had to sign 'NDAs with manufacturers ... get into the core of the code to determine whether they really could do what they said." This demonstrates some of the risks and complexities still involved in ensuring full integration for large scale systems.