Security | News

New S2 Global Tackles Multi-Vendor Security Appliance Management

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/14/12

A security company that specializes in IP-based physical security and video management systems has introduced a new appliance that lets users bring those kinds of systems from multiple vendors together virtually under a single centrally-controlled network. S2 Security has released S2 Global, which allows IT administrators to integrate their security and video management appliances and have a single point of control even when the appliances are distributed throughout an enterprise.

S2 Global lets users set up a network of remote security hardware and control it via Web browser. The appliance is especially useful, according to the company, in environments that are physically dispersed with large physical security networks but not large communications infrastructures. The approach espoused by S2, the company said in a statement, eliminates "the regional chokepoints that are a significant problem for legacy systems."

The new product can also integrate multiple video management systems from S2 itself, enabling customers to perform real-time surveillance and forensic searches across a distributed set of sites.

Features of the new product include:

• A security management system access control database that can be managed centrally and remotely;
• Access privileges that can be specified at both the local and global levels;
• The ability to import from common personnel management systems;
• Scalability to "thousands" of locations on a single global server;
• Alarm management software to accommodate multiple simultaneous operators;
• Integration with S2's NetVR and NetBox VR for distributed video management system work; and
• A reporting facility that integrates activity from remote devices into aggregated reports.

"S2 Global gives customers operational efficiencies and management control at any distance, and enables them to completely control their security ecosystem wherever it happens to be," said President and CEO John Moss.