Security and access control solutions specialist, Abloy UK, has launched a new ‘white paper’, titled Securing the Future: Revolutionising Critical Infrastructure Access Control with Digital Solutions, which it says ‘investigates the transformative potential of digital access control technologies’, specifically focusing on the comparative strengths and weaknesses of Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth.
Head of Critical Infrastructure, Steve Wintle, said: “From bridges and viaducts to data centres and telecom facilities, the need for robust, reliable access control solutions has been a constant challenge for critical infrastructure facilities and security managers. Historically, these types of environments have been secured using traditional mechanical locks. However, as technology has advanced, there’s been a significant shift towards digital solutions that offer greater flexibility, reliability, and ease of management.”
The white paper explains how to set up an access control system to ‘make it easy for the right people to access the right locations, at the right time, to do the right job’, and ‘to ensure unauthorised people can’t access restricted’. It explores the evolution of access control, which comes as a detailed analysis of the transition from mechanical to digital solutions and the key drivers behind this change.
The document highlights ‘the limitations of traditional mechanical systems, the benefits of digital access control, and the strategic advantages of developing access control solutions with an API-first approach, ensuring seamless integration with existing IT infrastructures’.
The ‘pros and cons’ of NFC vs Bluetooth in access control applications are covered, looking at speed, range, remote unlocking, security, and authentication.
The white paper also examines Abloy BEAT – a keyless, mobile operated solution designed for critical infrastructure applications, which the company describes as ‘representing a future-proof access control solution for the most demanding environments’.