Live from Cloud+

Cloud+ — It's a wrap!

One and a half days jam-packed with info, curiousity, interaction and networking for all involved. Where do I start? I'll be writing more about all this later, but here are some highlights:

Keynoter Monica Hopelian, cloud specialist for Microsoft's state and local government team, said the cloud is here to stay and offered advice on finding the "right cloud." Among her advice, which you can read about in detail on the Security System News website soon, was making sure your cloud is flexible. "Tiering off into the cloud" is important to meet different requirementS and compliance issues.

Up next was John Mack, EVP, co-head of investment banking and head of mergers and acquisitions, Imperial Capital. Mack said use of the cloud will lead to more funding for M&A. "Private equity is very interested in the cloud-based business model," he said. You can read more about that on the SSN site today.

Christian Morin, VP Cloud Services, Genetec; Steve Van Till, president and CEO, Brivo; and Jeremy Brecher, VP Technology and Electronic Security, Diebold; discussed public clouds, private clouds and hybrid clouds. "Cloud will transform this [physical security] industry," Morin said.

BluBox Security's CEO and co-founder Patrick Berry spoke on "The possibilities of cloud-powered biometrics." "Do more, own less, protect yourself—that's what cloud does for you."

Day 2 kicked off Rodney Thayer's talk about ensuring cybersecurity in the cloud. "You can't stop thinking about security just because you've moved to the cloud," he said. "Your data is next to another customer's data. You have to verify, trust, but verify." Thayer is a cybersecurity expert, a consutlant with Smithee, Spelvin, Agnew & Plinge.

Cliff Dice, president and CEO of DiCE; Hank Goldberg, VP, Secure Global Solutions; and Jens Kolind, president and CEO of Innovative Business Software discussed the cloud's usefulness and benefits for central stations. With everything geting more technical, they said and with it becoming more cost-effective, it only makes sense. That discussion was moderated by Jay Hauhn, CSAA president.

Security customers want simplicity, according to Bob Ryan, SVP of Protection1, and Brian Lohse, director, sales for SecureI and Alarm.com. That's why video in the cloud is good for both customers and providers. There's a value to convenience and sales forces need to be trained to sell that.

Three leading integrators, Morgan Harris, director enterprise solutions, Protection 1; Chris Peckham, SVP, CTO and special projects, Kratos Public Safety and Security Solutions; and Jerry Cordasco, client development manager, Tech Systems, said cloud is the absolute right choice for a variety of customers, including those who need access control, video and health monitoring.

Alice Debiasio, general manager, cloud services, Honeywell Security and Fire; Jay Kenny, SVP of marketing, Alarm.com; and Letha McLaren, chief marketing, Icontrol, discussed the opportunities, now that cloud has taken off with resi customers, for the commercial side. It's easier than ever today to make that transition, they said.

Finally, Seth Page of Unikey and Mayank Upadhyay, director of engineering for Google, said they want keys and passwords to become obsolete. The phone should become the key, and they're working on it. That panel was moderated by Jonathan Healey of Brivo.

More later!