Secure Logiq - Experts & Thought Leaders

Secure Logiq has completed the hardware supply for a significant surveillance and AI infrastructure project in Saudi Arabia, working closely with recent distribution partner Valuable Diamond. The deployment includes multiple petabytes of enterprise storage and high-performance AI servers that will support advanced video analytics and intelligent surveillance for one of the Kingdom’s most prestigious end users. In a region where demand for reliable surveillance infrastructure continues to accelerate, this marks a strong step forward for the Secure Logiq team, particularly where Vision 2030 is driving major investment in smart, connected security environment. Right technology meets “This project really highlights what can happen when the right technology meets the right channel partner,” says Ben Yoxall, Joint Managing Director at Secure Logiq. “Valuable Diamond have an exceptional understanding of the Saudi market and the challenges end users face. Their commitment, technical insight and on-the-ground presence have been central to making this deployment a success. We’re incredibly proud to be working alongside them.” Large-scale surveillance and AI infrastructure The project was supported by Hossam Abouzeid, Secure Logiq’s Business Development Manager for KSA and Bahrain, working closely with Valuable Diamond’s Mohammad Nassar and Wessam Salameh. With large-scale surveillance and AI infrastructure becoming increasingly critical across the Kingdom, this partnership is already laying strong foundations for future growth.

Secure Logiq is pleased to announce key leadership changes within its Middle East and Africa (MEA) team. First and foremost, the team express deep appreciation to Anand Subbiah for his outstanding work in firmly establishing the Secure Logiq brand across the MEA market. His dedication and commitment have played a pivotal role in the company’s regional success. As Anand moves on to new opportunities, the team extend their sincere thanks and best wishes for the future. Welcoming their new Regional Director At the same time, Secure Logiq is delighted to welcome Elias Bechara as their new Regional Director MEA. A familiar and highly respected figure in the Middle East security market, Elias brings over a decade of experience in CCTV and video analytics. Having founded 6SS Global and more recently representing Irisity across the Middle East, Africa and France, Elias is exceptionally well-placed to build on Anand’s achievements and lead the next phase of Secure Logiq’s regional growth. In his new role, Elias will oversee business operations across the MEA region, strengthening the company’s presence, driving growth and leading the established team to new heights. Representing Secure Logiq at Intersec Elias has already hit the ground running - spending his very first week representing Secure Logiq at Intersec Saudi Arabia, where his appointment was met with great enthusiasm by the Middle East’s electronic security community. “We’re excited to have Elias on board,” said Ben Yoxall, Joint Managing Director at Secure Logiq, adding “His local expertise, technical knowledge and leadership experience make him an invaluable addition to our team as we continue to expand our footprint in the region. We also want to take this opportunity to thank Anand for his significant contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”

Mayflex, the distributor of Converged IP Solutions, has strengthened its external security team with the addition of two new experienced and accomplished recruits. Jason Cooke joins Mayflex from Wavestore, where he was a Regional Sales Manager. Prior to that, he has worked at Pelco as a Channel Account Manager. Jason will be focused on looking after accounts predominantly in the Southeast. Prior roles of McLernon  Matt will be focused on looking after accounts in the Midlands and South Wales Matt McLernon joins Mayflex from Veracity UK, where he was the UK Sales Manager. Prior to that, he worked at Lilin UK as a Business Development Manager. Matt will be focused on looking after accounts in the Midlands and South Wales. Francesco Bellavia, Director of Sales for Security at Mayflex, commented, "We are delighted to welcome Jason and Matt to the team, both have been in the security industry for many years and have a wealth of experience, a focus on customer service and the desire to succeed, which is the perfect fit for our ‘driven to deliver more’ philosophy." Range of security products Frankie continued: “They will be getting up to speed and then selling and supporting the full range of security products, including Avigilon Unity, Avigilon Alta and, Axis, Hikvision, Milestone, Mobotix, Paxton, Pelco, Secure Logiq, Suprema and Veracity. Additionally, they will offer a full suite of infrastructure products from Excel to provide customers with a total installation solution." Frankie concluded: “In the first few weeks, Jason and Matt will undergo a comprehensive induction to bring them up to speed on the brands and all about Mayflex."

Supply chain issues have plagued the economic recovery during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the problems show every indication of persisting for months or even years to come. Supply chain challenges have impacted the security marketplace in many ways, reflecting the breadth and variety of products needed to secure people, facilities, and assets. Wondering about the specifics of that impact, we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How does disruption of the global supply chain of components impact players across the security industry?

Prices and delivery times for essential components in CCTV systems are being driven up as demand soars from other industries. Secure Logiq’s Robin Hughes explains the current state of the market. Challenges Component shortages and supply chain challenges are a hot topic in just about every industry based on semi-conductors and silicon chips right now, and security is no exception. It’s common knowledge that the global Covid lockdown caused a shutdown in the mining of silicon and spherites as large industries such as motor manufacturing cancelled or postponed their chip orders – this has caused a supply gap that every industry is feeling. However, there is a second challenge that is hitting the security sector particularly hard, and it may not be one you are expecting – cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies and security When people discuss cryptocurrencies and security, thoughts often turn to cybersecurity and ransomware payment tracking. But the issue for the majority of the security industry comes from crypto mining. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, GPUs are intrinsic for ‘proof of work’ mining GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are a key component in CCTV, they decode images and display them onto screens. With the increase of video analytics, these have also become key to running the complicated algorithms required for creating the metadata and presenting it in a meaningful way for end-users. However, when it comes to cryptocurrencies, GPUs are intrinsic for ‘proof of work’ mining. Demand for GPUs When Bitcoin prices were relatively low, it was hard to justify the cost of a GPU and the associated power consumption for Bitcoin mining applications. But as the price of Bitcoin has increased exponentially, demand for GPUs to do the number-crunching has grown dramatically causing a major shortage and huge price hikes. This rise in prices is not correlated with an increase in technological performance on the new GPUs, it is entirely a case of demand outstripping supply and a resulting bidding war. To put this in context, cards are currently going new for around twice the original price and manufacturers simply cannot keep up with the demand. Chia On top of this, there is a new cryptocurrency creating a new threat to a different part of the CCTV industry. A new ‘environmental’ cryptocurrency called Chia has dispensed with the processing power and electricity demands of traditional GPU mining, instead of utilising the spare storage space on hard drives (HDD) to verify blockchain transactions (‘proof of space’). The demand for this particular cryptocurrency has to date called on 30 Exabytes of storage since May this year – that’s 30 Billion Gigabytes of data, and it’s not just HDDs, high-capacity SSDs are also in demand. This is causing massive hard drive supply issues globally, thus rocketing prices for those that are available. HDD consumption The security industry sits comfortably in the ‘Big data’ category and with storage retention times running from 30 days to 6 months Of course, this has a particularly large knock-on for the CCTV market. There is nothing more data-intensive than video, other than multiple streams of HD video. With this in mind, the security industry sits comfortably in the ‘Big data’ category and with storage retention times running from 30 days typically up to 6 months and longer in some regions/applications, the CCTV market consumes more HDDs than many other markets. Growth of data centres While you would think that this would make security an important area for HDD manufacturers, our market is a relatively small player. IT vendors will always focus on their core customers, and the rise of the gaming market, as well as the growth of data centres due to remote working in the pandemic, has created a more important sector to serve – and these customers will always come first. Imagine the daily storage space required if 5 Billion people uploaded just one image a day to ‘the cloud’! Component manufacturers These factors combined with the lack of raw materials leading to longer lead times for component manufacturers mean that the prices for hard drives and GPUs are likely to remain inflated well into 2022 while factories play catch up on the backlog. The market for IT hardware is currently strong enough to continue even with the increase in component prices and the extended lead times for products. If you can get your hands on any HDDs, the delivery times from most distributors are around 6-8 weeks. Increased delivery times All of this has had a serious impact on the security industry. CCTV projects are now facing the combined issue of increased delivery times and higher costs. Many manufacturers, integrators, and distributors are doing their best to absorb the price increases where they can, but this is unsustainable over the long term. So what can be done? Second-hand applications Some people are getting more creative by purchasing from the second-hand market Some people are getting more creative by purchasing from the second-hand market. However, it is unlikely that commercial applications will be willing to risk potential downtime or data losses by using second-hand components that have been pushed hard for months on end mining cryptocurrencies. Making early purchases While I can’t comment on what other manufacturers have done, at Secure Logiq we have been watching this market trend closely. We always try to keep a close eye on anything that has the potential to significantly impact our manufacturing capabilities and try to offset any potential challenges with early purchases before the impact is fully felt. As such, we have been able to secure enough products to continue manufacturing as normal for more than six months. Increased demand as a challenge While we have this existing stock to meet current and anticipated orders, we continue to scour the market for any available stock to make sure we are at the top of the list when any fresh products come on the market. This has meant that throughout our 10-year history we have never failed to deliver a customer order within 7-10 working days. The delays with component manufacture and the ongoing increased demand will continue to present a huge challenge to the CCTV and wider security industry. However, good planning and intelligent design will allow projects to remain on track. Security technology manufacturers are not alone in this challenge, but the dual-threat is perhaps unique. It will take a while for this threat to be overcome, but with robust planning and by paying close attention to the market forward-thinking CCTV manufacturers can still deliver projects for their clients.