Genetec introduces Security Center SaaS

MONTREÀL—Calling it "a new chapter in the technology evolution of the physical security industry," Genetec has introduced Security Center SaaS, a massively scalable, open, and unified software as a service solution (SaaS). 

Security Center SaaS was built with cybersecurity and privacy at its core, with the new offering combining access control, video management, forensic search, intrusion monitoring, automation, and many other advanced security capabilities, the company said in its announcement.

Christian Morin, vice president of product engineering and CSO at Genetec, explained the premise behind Security Center SaaS during the recent Genetec Global Press Summit in Washington, D.C.

“We are taking all of the offerings that we currently have at Genetec in the cloud and we're ultimately bringing them together as one single, unified SaaS offering called, simply enough, Security Center SaaS,” he said. “Fundamentally, these are the capabilities that we offer in Security Center but delivered to the customer through a cloud or through a SaaS model - easy, fast, non-stop - with the capabilities that Genetec has.

"The physical security industry has not been able to get cloud or software as a service quite right, especially for enterprise customers,” he added. “With Security Center SaaS, organizations are no longer beholden to proprietary or feature-poor as-a-service solutions that needlessly force a choice of either all on-prem or all cloud.”

Morin continued, “The enterprise capabilities and open architecture of Security Center SaaS are designed to enable systems to handle complex workloads where they make the most sense to be deployed. This flexibility addresses a longstanding need of end users and fills an important gap in the market.”

A hybrid SaaS solution built for channel partners

As deployments become increasingly sophisticated, end users rely on trusted security professionals to guide them through their transition to cloud and hybrid environments. To bring this new SaaS solution to the market, Genetec has transformed its entire approach to procurement, deployment, and maintenance without compromising the enterprise-grade capabilities for which its solutions are known.

“Current approaches to SaaS have undercut the role of channel partners, whom we see as central to customer and project success. Security Center SaaS represents an important opportunity for our systems integrators. It means better margins and long-term customer satisfaction, with no additional investment in time or resources on the part of partners,” noted Michel Chalouhi, vice president of global sales, Genetec.

With an automated quoting and ordering process, systems can be fully operational within minutes from when the order is placed. The brand-new Genetec Portal makes it easy to quote, order, deploy, and manage large deployments so that channel partners can continue growing their business and deliver the technology and ownership options that their end users demand.

Enterprise-grade experience in the cloud

With the ability to centralize the monitoring and management of multiple sites, Security Center SaaS is ideally suited to meet the needs of customers in a wide range of verticals, including retail, education, corporate campuses, banking, healthcare, and cities. It can serve low-density deployments with a handful of direct-to-cloud devices and scale up to thousands of sites and devices with hybrid storage and processing.

Operators can manage operations from a SOC (Security Operations Center) or on the go through robust web and mobile applications.  

A seamless evolution to the cloud

Security Center SaaS is a deployment-agnostic platform that supports a range of configurations. Based on a hybrid-SaaS architecture, the new solution allows organizations to move components and sites to the cloud based on their needs and requirements using a combination of cloud-native services and cloud-managed appliances, with storage and processing at the edge. Because of its open architecture, Security Center SaaS gives organizations the freedom to choose the devices, cameras, and door controllers that work best for their business.

In addition, Security Center SaaS can connect seamlessly with existing on-premises security devices and infrastructure. Access control devices and cameras that are not cloud-ready can easily be connected to Security Center SaaS using Genetec edge appliances.   

“It's not just about the cloud. The cloud is a means to an end. Yes, we're running things in the cloud because it's also useful for us to maintain, it's useful for our customers. They don't have to necessarily deploy servers. But it's not for everybody,” Morin explained during the Global Press Summit. “In our strategy, we also have a set of appliances because it's all about being hybrid cloud. So what Genetec is, it’s about being hybrid first.

“What we mean about being hybrid first is that we don't really care where the software runs. The software may run in the cloud, or it may run on premise. So, the appliance, when we're looking at Security Center SaaS, is your vehicle to allow you to run these workloads on prem. What we're doing is that we have stuff that runs in the cloud, but we have the mechanisms if you say, ‘I want this, this and that to run on this box in my data center.’

“So, with Security Center SaaS, at launch, we will have the video workload, amongst others, that will run on an appliance. If you want to record video locally and you want the video recorded in the cloud, you can have it run in the cloud. And this platform over time will allow us to have this continuum where we can seamlessly shift workloads from one to the other, connected and managed via the cloud. But where the data resides is up to you; where the data processing occurs, depending on the functionality, will be according to you.”

Availability

Available globally in April 2024 from certified Genetec partners, Security Center SaaS is offered in tiered subscription plans based on the number of device connections needed. It will be showcased for the first time at ISC West at booth #13062.

For more information, please visit https://www.genetec.com/a/security-center-saas-launch.