Why is a hosted access control system better than a stand-alone system?
With a stand-alone access control system, your control boards that control your doors are limited to being tied to the site where the host computer is. This presents a few challenges for the user, such as having to have a separate platform per site, and the possibility of having to enter cards into more than one site to grant access to multiple doors at multiple sites. Not to mention, if a control board was to go down (lightning strike, vandalism, etc.) replacing the board may possibly mean re-programming the entire system.
With a hosted, or cloud-based system, the system can span across multiple sites, across multiple states, seamlessly. The program files are held in the cloud on secure servers, as well as independently resting on each controller. What this means is if the internet goes down, the on-site controller still holds all the user and card data, as well as the transaction history. If the board itself goes down, when a new board is installed, the system reaches out to the cloud an updates itself with the current program file. This fault-tolerance is the main factor when deciding on what system is right for you. Not to mention, a you can simply grant access to a user/card to any door on the system, regardless of where the site is located. You can also remotely lock and unlock doors from any computer or phone.
For these reasons, we do not offer stand-alone access control systems. We only offer hosted systems.
Contact us for more information!
Can I integrate cameras with access control?
Yes!
But let's touch on that point for a minute.
At Fusion Alarms, we offer full commercial grade camera systems. When we integrate cameras with access control, we call that "Access Control with Video Verification."
These two systems, a Video Surveillance System and an Access Control with Video Verification System, are really two very different systems.
Access Control with Video Verification is a powerful feature that allows you to automatically capture a video clip when an access control event occurs. The time-frames are aligned to show you when a person tries to access a door, whether they have permission to that door or not, and displays the video clip in the event history along with the access control event.
A Video Surveillance System is designed to record all types of events, from simple continuous recording, to motion detection only recording, to advanced analytics such as line cross detection, intrusion detection, unattended baggage detection, etc. These systems are typically a much higher grade product, as they are lifting a heavier load.
For these reasons, we keep these two systems separate.