Integrators '20 under 40' 2015—Joe Cestra

Joe Cestra, 35

Director of technology, World Wide Security Group

Garden City, N.Y.

Joe Cestra works to incorporate new technologies into World Wide Security Group's central station, while also looking to monetize technologies World Wide already has in place.

Cestra went to Queens College to study IT, focusing on networking and wireless technology. After graduating, he joined his mother at People Protection to help in “revamping” the technology in the company's monitoring center. He then realized how valuable his IT knowledge could be to a security company.

He saw World Wide Security as the right fit after his first meeting with the company, which was based not far from People Protection. “I saw the challenging pipeline of work there and felt it was the best place for me to add my skills to an already amazing team,” he said.

“One of my primary focuses here is to really drive home the ability to go from concepts to dollars and cents,” Cestra said. He lauded the company's turnaround time for incorporating new technologies.

As an example, World Wide recently started GPS monitoring stacks of money for banks, in order to track cash involved in robberies about a year ago, Cestra said. It took the company about two months to go from concept to testing the technology within the central, he said. Apps and video monitoring are two newer ways the company looks to gain revenue.

“I really believe that security video is going to make the biggest wave, in terms of future sales [and] future services as everything gets pushed to the cloud,” Cestra said.

Video monitoring is a fragmented market, Cestra said, and it will be a big opportunity for central stations. “Central stations are really going to start to harness offering video as a service, [and] being able monetize through recurring revenue.”

“I love how not much [in the security industry] gets stale anymore,” he said. “With wireless technology, and everything's becoming so deeply rooted with networking and IP-based communications, it's always pushing forward at a very rapid speed.”