Kastle Systems – The Trailblazer of Security

Providing physical security in the workplace is a basic need for any business, but it’s become more challenging with the risk of Covid-19. Security innovation leader, Kastle Systems, has leveraged their open technology to integrate health screening into access control processes to help America feel confident that they can safely return to work in 2021. This is one example of how this firm continues to lead the industry in technical prowess to keep spaces safe. Read on.

What makes your company stand out from your competitors?

We are a physical security provider, providing Security-as-a-Service and also Managed Security, which describes Kastle’s end-to-end approach for servicing clients’ physical security needs by taking full responsibility for the security package and operations. We differ from our competitors who simply sell systems (hardware and software) to businesses for them to run on their own. We give clients a completely integrated service for Access Control and Video Surveillance from design and installation to maintenance and monitoring for the long term. We ensure that all of the services are designed in a manner that the client can entrust all the burdens of security on trained professionals and dedicate their valuable time to the business.

Being a pioneer in the Managed Security sector for over four decades, what major changes have you encountered?

Cloud computing has made our operation infinitely scalable, as we can monitor thousands of clients across the nation from our redundant, geo-dispersed operations centers, and we can push updates to our clients from a central location, freeing them of the upkeep and the vast storage footprint it would require to run it on-premise themselves. It also enables our clients to access and manage their systems from any location on any internet device. In the world of remote work and mobile technology, this has empowered them to maintain and record access activity on an enterprise-level from anywhere.

Bluetooth, IoT, Smartphones, and connected devices are making access control an integral piece of smart building technology. The individual user identities can inform building systems of varying access rights of space use and how to most efficiently run systems, like informing an elevator where and which floor to deliver a passenger without ever touching any call button.

Additionally, the central administrator gets highly detailed and extremely accurate data on each unique individual’s space usage over time, which is invaluable for forensics, contact tracing, and other analytical studies. It also enables the administrator to enroll new users easily or immediately revoke access rights at an individual identity level if necessary.

Can you brief us about your advanced technologies that ensure complete protection?

The events of 2020 have shifted priorities for the current generation of office workers. In response to businesses’ desire to build confidence in their workers that they can safely return to the workplace, we have integrated heath screening protocols into our access control such as daily health attestation and body temperature monitoring with KastleSafeSpaces (KSS). This technology configures Kastle Access Control systems to integrate with the various mainstream coronavirus testing methods, so that daily test results are implemented instantly into physical access rights at the credential level for individuals daily.

The system features touchless access credentials in the form of a smartphone app, KastlePresence®, to reduce risks of germ sharing by enabling wireless, hands-free access to doors, turnstiles, elevators, visitor kiosks, and parking ticket vending machines.

Tell us about your industry-leading disaster-resilient system?

We monitor our buildings at several widely geo-dispersed operations centers simultaneously, which allows for redundancy, resiliency, and real-time 24×7 coverage. With Kastle’s business continuity in place, any one of our monitoring locations can pick up and take over for any other location with no lag or backups. This inherent resiliency provides our clients with superior security while providing the quickest and best response in a crisis situation.

How does KastlePresence® make your clients’ workplace secure, shielded, and more convenient?

KastlePresence® is Kastle’s smartphone-based access solution. The user credential resides on a mobile app and uses a Bluetooth® signal to transmit access approval to door locks, turnstiles, parking gates, and even smart elevators. Unlike a standard-issue 125 kHz proximity key card, which emits a consistent radio signal to readers that is relatively easy to intercept and copy, each Bluetooth signal from the KastlePresence app is uniquely encrypted, so it cannot be copied, and thus it’s more secure.

Given that access rights transmitted on the app actually reside at the cloud-based master administrative directory, like the HRIS authoritative source, they are easily controlled remotely by the system administrator and can be instantly activated in the same process as user enrollment.

Can you shed light on your cutting-edge Cloud-based Video Surveillance technology?

Smart IP cameras onsite using a cloud-based video storage platform can improve onsite security without increasing client staff by using advanced video analytics to detect “real events”, trigger alerts to an administrator, and enable instant viewing of crisp video from anywhere. As it is cloud-based, the video is streamed and stored at an offsite operations centers as opposed to a client’s onsite server, so you can “tune-in” from anywhere over the internet to view camera footage live or view video clips of only actual incidents as opposed to scrolling through hours of footage to find an event. You can even click and share event clips with others, like law enforcement, the HR department, insurance company, etc., via email.

About the CEO

Haniel J Lynn is the CEO of Kastle Systems, who joined the company in 2018. He has more than 25 years of global operating and executive management experience growing and scaling enterprises from startup to $1 billion company. He has the unique ability to oscillate between high-level vision and tactical execution while inspiring a culture of teamwork. He spent 16 years at CEB (now Gartner) and served as its Group President.

“Kastle’s cloud-based access control platform is the ideal solution because it scales as we grow and provides an easy way for our staff to manage access across multiple locations.” – Reid Fetters, Chief Real Estate Development Officer of MakeOffices.