Genetec has announced the opening of its 16th global office in Vienna, Austria, supporting an expanding R&D hub, regional sales and support teams.
The new office is ideally located to support the company’s expanding footprint in Central Europe and serve as a hub for the DACH region.
With a multilingual staff representing 18 nationalities, Genetec believes the Austria team brings a unique mix of different cultures and ideas. Following the acquisition of Austrian video analytics company KiwiSecurity, the Vienna-based R&D team will focus on multiple areas including privacy and video analytics solutions that enable customers to protect people’s privacy while increasing security and operational efficiency. Genetec continues to expand its DACH operation and is actively recruiting talented individuals to join the team throughout that region.
“The new Vienna offices will give us the perfect platform to continue expanding our footprint into Central Europe and sustain the continued year-on-year growth we have achieved in Europe and the rest of the world,” said Cyrille Becker, General Manager for Europe, at Genetec Inc. “While right now everyone is safely working from home, our new offices will be there to support our long-term growth strategy and better meet the needs of our channel partners, end users, and prospects in the region.”
The company has also published its physical security trend predictions for 2021.
1) Innovative security solutions will help businesses thrive post pandemic
While the world remains optimistic for 2021, organisations will need to remain creative about how they use, update, and redeploy their security systems across their facilities. This will allow them to start thinking more broadly about the role of physical security and what it can do beyond traditional applications to deliver more value. We have already seen proof of this resilience and resourcefulness over the last few months with many organisations quickly adapting to the new needs and challenges posed by COVID-19, using their physical security technology as a strategic tool in the fight against the pandemic. The use of systems to support strategic decision making is set to continue, believes Genetec.
2) Businesses will focus on privacy protection
In an effort to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, many organisations rushed to implement ‘fever detection’ devices and other new sensors without necessarily having the time to consider privacy implications. Public privacy concerns related to COVID-19 contact tracing and other social challenges will continue to grow. These sensitivities will require the physical security industry to address privacy head-on and find appropriate solutions.
3) Cyber security risks will continue to rise
While cyber security has been an issue for some time, it will unfortunately continue to be a vital concern in 2021. From schools and hospitals to private businesses and governments, there’s been a rise in cyber-attacks over the last year. In Q3 of 2020 alone, Trend Micro reported that there were almost 4 million email threats and over 1 million hits on malicious URLs related to COVID-19. Much of this can be linked to the overnight shift to remote work, highlighting the fact that the traditional IT perimeter no longer exists. Businesses, organizations, and governments will need to take decisive steps to strengthen their cyber posture, or risk undermining the safety of their intellectual property, sensitive data, and personal information
4) Greater focus on trust in the supply chain
Some governments are already discouraging the use of certain products from security manufacturers, citing trust and security vulnerabilities. End users, especially in the enterprise space, are taking more time to scrutinize the manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors with whom they choose to work. This includes asking vendors more pointed questions about how they manage emerging threats, how forthcoming they are about product vulnerabilities and their partner ecosystem, and what their data and privacy policies are. For a physical security solution provider to be considered a reputable, reliable partner to their customers, they are going to have to meet more stringent requirements as part of the procurement process.
5) Demand for hybrid cloud solutions will continue to grow
According to Forrester’s recent report, Predictions 2021: Cloud Computing Powers Pandemic Recovery, global public cloud infrastructure will grow 35% to a market value of $120 billion over the next year. As online usage and remote work spiked during the pandemic, a global shift towards digital transformation, already underway, greatly accelerated.
In order to thrive, physical security professionals will need to follow the lead of IT departments. In the coming year, physical security leaders should let go of the either/or division between cloud and on-premises security systems and embrace a hybrid deployment model in their physical security infrastructure. This will allow them to implement specific systems or applications in the cloud while keeping existing on-premises systems.
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