27 Apr 5 emerging access control trends to keep your eye on in 2022

Access control is evolving fast. The pandemic prompted us to rapidly adopt (and create) new technologies for work and safety purposes. The result? Modern solutions to old problems have become simpler, faster and lower cost.

Let’s look at the top 5 trends on the rise across access control in 2022.

Mobile phones become the new key cards

According to recent statistics, 83.7% of the population now own a smartphone.

Recognising that, many organisations are equipping their employees’ devices with mobile badges to access buildings and facilities. This is huge for efficiency and useability.

Traditional key cards are easy to lose and even easier to forget. But how many of us forget our phone when we leave the house?

Most key cards are also unencrypted, meaning they can be easily cloned. This isn’t the case for mobile badges (the digital alternative), making them ideal for optimised security.

Finally, key cards are also made of plastic – and all too many end up in landfill each year. The move to mobile access control is a move towards sustainability.

Companies unify their systems – as REST API adoption skyrockets

According to RapidAPI’s 2021 Developer Survey Report, 61.6% of web developers relied more heavily on APIs in 2021 than in 2020.

And a massive 90.5% of web developers expected their reliance to grow or remain the same in 2022.

This was true across multiple industries, from Financial Services to Healthcare.

RapidAPI’s survey responses referred to API in its many forms (like SOAP, Gafka and Async). But their report also clearly shows that Representational State Transfer (REST) API, with its simplicity and lessened bandwidth demand, is the most popular choice across sectors.

Thanks to this widespread adoption of REST API-based infrastructures, companies can now unify their many online platforms under one system. This enables their access control solution (like Gallagher, Integriti or Genetec) to be their ‘master’ system.

Torus, for example, plugs seamlessly into an access control system so that building and facility managers don’t need to maintain yet another system.

Instead, they can change permissions, create new users and carry out all sorts of admin duties from their existing platform – which automatically updates Torus and all their other systems.

It’s easy to see why REST API is on the rise.

The cloud becomes the cornerstone of access control

The ‘cloud’ lets users upload and store data in remote servers instead of hard drives and physical servers.

On an industrial scale, those older methods of storage take up a lot of physical space – which is just one reason more companies are moving to cloud-based access control systems.

Another reason is that cloud-based systems can be managed remotely – letting administrators carry out their daily management tasks from anywhere in the world. This is an invaluable feature in this new age of hybrid work.

Plus, because they don’t require any local hardware, cloud-based solutions can scale from one site to many with ease.

In 2021, Gartner predicted global investment in the public cloud would grow by 23% in the year ahead. Today, Gartner expects “more than half of enterprise IT spending in key market segments” to move to the cloud by 2025.

Cheaper, more scalable and more sustainable to boot, it’s easy to see why a move to the cloud is such a strong trend for 2022.

Legacy systems reach their expiry date

As access control systems move from hardware to software, legacy technology is falling behind.

These older, outdated computer systems are reliable in that they still do what they’ve always done. But because they can’t connect to newer systems – like those that are cloud-based – they hinder organisational growth.

Legacy technology is also becoming risky. The low-frequency cards they use are easy (and cheap) to clone, exposing workplaces to security breaches.

But the business world is waking up to all of this. Organisations are upgrading to more modern access control systems to bring their security and efficiency up to 2022 standards.

Touchless access becomes the gold standard

When COVID-19 hit – and keeping surfaces bacteria-free became vital – contactless technologies became the heroes of access control.

And in 2022, they’re here to stay.

Facial recognition technology is one of the most common solutions in this category. (Smartphone users will already be familiar with it.) But there are many other contactless biometric technologies on the market.

Iris and voice recognition are among them – and even touchless fingerprint technologies are emerging.

As demand for these technologies has climbed, they’ve become far more accessible. They’re now the first choice for access control.

Want to bring your access control technology into 2022? Take a step towards maximum efficiency and security.