Global economic expansion and technology improvements continued to drive demand this year for IP cameras, network video recorders (NVRs), access control and other security technologies.
A strong year for security
Overall, 2017 represented another strong year for the security industry. A combination of falling prices and improved IP camera performance helped drive camera sales during the year as the migration from analogue to IP continued to pick up momentum.
Advancements in areas such as video analytics, compression and data analytics enabled end users to begin leveraging video beyond traditional security applications. We expect this trend to continue in 2018 as the market finds new uses for video data, and integrators build out their service portfolios.
Key industry trends to watch
Another 2017 trend was the growing concern over cybersecurity and the exposure of security vulnerabilities in many leading security products. This concern grew throughout the year and is causing some enterprises to rethink their strategies. With IT departments increasingly weighing in on security vendor selection, we expect this to have a major impact on camera sales in 2018.
In 2018, three key industry trends to watch will be a continued focus on cybersecurity, the introduction of artificial intelligence, and ongoing growth of security-as-a-service.
Heightened cybersecurity concerns
The sheer scope and size of the data breaches we saw in 2017 – Equifax being one of the most notable – has heightened concerns over cyber-preparedness. Increasingly, corporations are beginning to evaluate their own level of cybersecurity preparedness, as well as that of their suppliers.
In 2018, we expect to see IT departments continue to play an expanded role in approving products for deployment on corporate networks. The use of third-party cybersecurity audits will become common practice and significantly impact how products are developed. In addition to ensuring that their products are secure, suppliers will also need to improve security organisationally.
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| The sheer scope and size of the data breaches we saw in 2017 – Equifax being one of the most notable – has heightened concerns over cyber-preparedness |
For video solution providers, that could mean demonstrating how you protect your software code, the architecture of your software or how compliant your solutions are with data privacy standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) legislation in Europe. The need to bolster cyber defences will drive demand for new equipment and software upgrades as the vulnerabilities of legacy equipment are exposed.
Artificial intelligence is here
Another key trend in 2018 will be the proliferation of AI-enabled products in our industry. End users are increasingly looking to data analytics to gain better insight into their operations. These may include security-related intelligence or operational and customer insight.
We have also begun to see several chip manufacturers introduce next generation processors with AI built into the core firmware. As a result, we forecast that product innovations in 2018 will focus on advanced video analytics, data integrations and application software. The challenge for both manufacturers and end users will be how to decide which data is valuable, who will have access to it, and how to best manage it.
Managed and cloud-based services
Demand for security-as-a-service will also continue to grow in 2018. The combination of low upfront capital costs and outsourced services has made cloud-based video and access control popular in the hospitality and small-to-medium enterprise markets. As service providers add more sophisticated applications and services to further drive customer insight and efficiencies, we predict that enterprise retail customers will also begin to move to this model in 2018.
