In an indocation of how access control is developing, a new report suggests the transition to contactless smart cards is beginning to take off in the American market.

The report, from IRS Research, says that the US government's decision to deploy an integrated, agency-wide common smart card platform will continue to raise awareness of smart card technology and increase the demand for contactless smart card (13.56MHz) proximity readers in the public and private sectors. IMS predicts the Americas market for electronic physical access control equipment will reach $766.7m (£415m) in 2009, with a forecast compound annual growth rate of 9.1 per cent.

Analyst Paul Everett said: "One of the emerging trends within the access control industry is the convergence of physical and logical access control. In terms of logical access, most organisations are still securing their IT infrastructure with passwords, which in recent times have been called into question in terms of the level of security they provide.

"In an attempt to increase security, IT departments are now realising the potential of utilising physical access control infrastructure, and, in particular, card access readers.

"One of the fundamental benefits of deploying smart cards in the commercial space is the ability to bring physical door access and IT user identification onto a single token.

“Contactless physical access control credentials can also carry secure IT applications such as secure log-ons to networks and digital signatures. This is significantly streamlining the costs and potential security concerns associated with credentialing employees.

"As a result, smart cards are emerging as the de facto choice for securing not only physical access to buildings but at the same time IT infrastructures."

Everett said that while still in the early stages, the trend to smart cards and subsequent increased convergence between physical and logical access control is set to gain momentum.

"Initially driven by US government pilot projects, smart cards are becoming much more widely used in the access control industry," he said. "We predict that by 2009, 22.3 per cent of readers shipped will be contactless smart card proximity readers."

Source

Security Installer