The convergence Grail

HID Global and other companies coming from the physical access control business have made inroads in the logical access control business. They have pushed their product to the most of their capacities, integrated new technologies, and combined their expertise with the conquest of a new market. But, they were stuck with an image and a market positioning closely associated with physical access control, not far from the door lock vendor, and the hardware shop.

On the other side, experts in computer security, such as ActivIdentity, developed logical access control systems, where they started from the computer side, and used secure transaction technologies such as cards USB tokens and unconnected one-time-password generators to provide security to the computer end-user.

This week, HID Global announced it was acquiring ActivIdentity, illustrating better than ever this convergence will between physical and logical access control. Once the integration period will be over, their combination of expertise in physical and logical access control will allow them to deliver complete solutions to their customers. Probably the most difficult part will not be the convergence of technology, but the convergence of demand on the customer side.

The future still looks bright for the card wallet and the token necklace.

Thierry Spanjaard

Chief Editor

Smart Insights