As organisations navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape, security leaders are making strategic shifts toward unified platforms and emerging technologies, according to a new report from HID.
The report is based on a study that covered 1,800 partners, end users, and security and IT personnel worldwide.
Ramesh Songukrishnasamy, SVP and CTO at HID, said 73% of security leaders now prioritise software-driven unified solutions, which shows a move beyond traditional siloed approaches.
“Organisations are demanding platforms that can scale with their needs while providing actionable intelligence,” he said.
Findings also show the rapid rise of mobile credentials, with 61% of security leaders identifying their proliferation as a top trend, signals a significant shift away from traditional access methods.
Nearly two-thirds are either deploying or planning to deploy mobile solutions. Concurrently, demand for biometric technologies such as fingerprint, iris, and facial recognition is on the rise: about 35% of respondents currently use biometric technology, while 13% plan to do so, indicating significant growth potential in this segment.
Also, as organisations diversify security technology today, many security leaders (67%) are making moves to adopt software-driven security solutions, citing that unifying multiple data collection methodologies would be “somewhat” or “very important” (73%) to their organisation.
Further, interoperability has become synonymous with progress across the security industry over the last few years, and the trend continues as more than half of security professionals reported open solutions as being “extremely” or “very” important to their organisations.
In addition, nearly two thirds of organisations and 73% of integrators and consultants report a shift toward software-driven security solutions that bridge physical and digital functions like video surveillance, access control, and intrusion detection into a more unified platform.
While 77% of channel partners believe they are adapting well to these changes, growing end-user demand for AI, cloud solutions, IoT integration, and advanced analytics is reshaping service expectations.
To thrive, the channel must continuously evolve and adapt to meet the evolving needs of the market and keep pace with digital transformation within the security sector.
AI agents are being rapidly adopted to enhance security operations. Use cases are proliferating across access control, identity management, video, and security management platforms.
Key benefits cited include improved efficiency and speed of security processes (50%) and enhanced real-time data analysis capabilities (47%).
The study also noted a continued emphasis on sustainability in security decision-making, budget allowing. Sustainability is still a key factor in security decision-making, with 75% of security leaders now factoring it into their solution selection process.
However, sustainability is not the most critical factor when selecting new solutions as security and cost-effectiveness are still the highest priority for 80% of integrators and consultants.
