Lenel New Release OnGuard 7.0 Examined
By Brian Rhodes, Published Nov 06, 2014, 12:00am EST
Access giant Lenel has announced a new version of their management platform OnGuard 7.0 [link no longer available].
With the update, Lenel announces expanded support for third-party access controllers, fire alarms, and elevator systems. They also are claiming quicker routing of cardholder verification details and overall tighter integration with customer IT environments.
However, what impact will this have? We address that question in this note.
Version Improvements
Quicker Performance: The biggest claim version 7 makes is 'cardholder replication and cardholder verification are up to 10 times faster than previous [Enterprise] versions'. Lenel claims things the quicker performance is due to streamlining software processes in its Service Oriented Architecture. However, actual performance increases are likely minimal for all but the largest, multi-site customers and not existent for non-Enterprise version systems.
More Integrations: OnGuard 7.0 deepens fire alarm integrations, by adding support for the Edwards EST3 fire alarm panels, Otis Elevator systems, and TruVision/Interlogix video surveillance. Those brands all happened to be owned by UTC Building & Industrial Systems [link no longer available], the parent for Lenel.
HID EVO Support: Also with the update, Lenel supports HID's 3rd party ethernet single door controller: Edge EVO. (See our review: HID's EVO Series Examined) Previous versions of OnGuard mainly supported their own branded LNL and NGP controllers and non-EVO Edge devices. The addition adds support for the updated and current production hardware device.
Other Tweaks
OnGuard 7.0 also includes improvements that may prove very useful for large deployments, a core segment for OnGuard where Lenel claims many thousands of systems for institutional and government customers:
IPv6 Support: While traditional 'four octet' IP addressing is showing few signs of being exhausted especially in subnetted and internal LAN environments, OnGuard 7.0 supports IPv6 for companion Lenel branded controllers. The company claims this move 'complies with new government standards' that may exclude the platform otherwise.
Alarm Hyperlinks: A usability addition for large monitored systems may benefit from are the addition of hyperlinks to alarm messages. This allows linking a message to an external document or action procedure to assist manned operators in routing responses directly from OnGuard's Alarm Monitoring.
Latest Windows OS Support: The new release also supports the latest operating systems and databases offered by Windows, to keep up with what is currently deployed in customer environments.
Who Benefits?
Nothing in version 7 is groundbreaking or market shifting, but it adds features appealing to existing Lenel customers operating large systems. Expanding the video and fire alarm integrations within the UTC brand is likely to enhance dealer positioning of those systems to Lenel customers.
The majority of smaller (non Enterprise) OnGuard systems will likely see limited improvements. For a recent review, see our: Lenel OnGuard Tested report.
