2025 Security Megatrends
Just last week, the Security Industry Association (SIA) announced its 2025 Security Megatrends report – a guide to the top 10 trends shaping the industry. At SIA, we compile this trends ranking through an extensive survey of industry executives under the leadership of SIA’s panel of Megatrends advisors. We validate those trends through the ideas shared at Securing New Ground (the Megatrends panel is one of the event’s signature sessions) and through focus groups held with numerous SIA advisory boards.
After all the focus groups, research and surveys have been conducted and commentary and feedback have been received, we’re happy to announce these topics as the SIA Security Megatrends for 2025:
- Evolution of the Channel
- AI: Intelligent Automation of Security
- Correcting the Systemic Undervaluation of Security
- Visual Intelligence, Not Video Surveillance
- IT-OT Security Convergence
- Platform Aggregation
- Democratization of Identity and Mobile Credentials
- Growth of Advanced Detection Technologies
- Shift of Influence From Hardware to Software
- SaaS, HaaS, DaaS and a Managed Services Future
What this year’s ranking shows is an industry facing rapid change. I’ll try to summarize key sentiments and points (but for the full analysis, download this 32-page report – which is free and open to the public).
1. Evolution of the Channel. The story here is a big shift in delivery model (some new technology entrants go direct to the customer, not leveraging the integrator channel) but there are also changes in the revenue model (old “construction” model of project-based revenue vs. new model of recurring revenue tied to SaaS). There’s even a shift in technology that can be a challenge for integrators to keep current on!
2. AI: Intelligent Automation of Security. Forget human-level intelligence. What buyers really want is the effective automation of their security programs so that the humans in the middle can focus on the important tasks that are strategic to their security.
3. Correcting the Systemic Undervaluation of Security. One of our Megatrends from last year was the return on investment of security, and yes, our industry has focused on the value or “return” it provides. But if we’re providing real “ROI” and value for our clients, why are security systems one of the lowest monthly expenses for both small and medium-sized businesses and enterprise businesses? This Megatrend raises that question and suggest ways to correct that undervaluation.
4. Visual Intelligence, Not Video Surveillance. Following previous trends that have stated that the camera was the ultimate sensor and that we are experiencing a proliferation of sensors, this Megatrend (a trend so good, it repeated from 2024) focuses on how are industry is transforming from a world where video was “video surveillance” recordings to a world where our industry’s systems are generating video content that has business operational value that transcends security.
5. IT-OT Security Convergence. Convergence isn’t exactly a new trend, but what’s fresh today is that information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) are converging like never before, primarily because businesses are realizing that their OT holds data insights into the future of their business. Security technologies sit in a unique spot. They converge with both IT and OT, not only because the data that security systems generate is both informational and operational, but as Megatrends Advisor Kasia Hanson of consulting firm K-Factor Global said, “Securing cyber-physical systems (CPS) has become increasingly critical. This heightened importance is driven by the increase in device connectivity, rising cyber threats, potential business impact on revenue, device complexity, including legacy systems, proliferation of IoT devices, and regulatory pressure in critical infrastructure protection.”
6. Platform Aggregation. Here’s the scenario: Businesses have more “systems” than ever before. Take a common facility, where you might find the following: HVAC, electrical, air/health monitoring, video security, access control, visitor management, intrusion detection, building occupancy, parking systems, etc. Then you add all the specialty systems that layer on top of these, and you count up the number of sensors, Internet of Things devices and other end points, and you realize we are destined to drown in a situation of too much data and not enough insights. Platform aggregation is the megatrend that attempts to solve that situation.
7. Democratization of Identity and Mobile Credentials. There is a clear move to replace physical credentials (badges, fobs, etc.) with mobile credentials, and this change creates complexity and opportunity in the access control ecosystem. But it’s also tied to a broader change around how we look at identity.
8. Growth of Advanced Detection Technologies. We don’t normally get into technical advancements within select product sectors, but the amount of advancement happening today in areas like weapons detection and chemical detection and even parsing of audio for intelligence is hard to ignore and earned a Megatrend ranking.
9. Shift of Influence From Hardware to Software. We were a hardware industry for years, the kind of industry where you compared write-rates on NVRs, sensitivity on detectors, range on readers and lux on cameras, and these measurements are still vitally important, but the real “stickiness” and value that our industry’s users engage with is in the software platforms. That shift of value from the user is shifting the influence and power in our industry.
10. SaaS, Haas, DaaS and a Managed Services Future. Tying back again to integrators and to manufacturers, this trend speaks to the opportunity to create both “software-as-a-service” and even “hardware-as-a-service” (or sometimes “device-as-a-service”) revenue models for our industry, ultimately offloading the technology support from the practitioner and allowing the practitioner to focus on managing risk, compliance and safety – not managing technology stacks.
We’ll be exploring some of these trends in greater depth throughout 2025, and we at SIA welcome your feedback and ideas for future Megatrends. You can reach me at [email protected], and we encourage you to download the full report for free from our website here.