Traditional vs Automated Security

What are the core facets that highlight the qualities of traditional and automated security?

1. The human element of traditional security
2. The objective and acute technological preciseness of automated security

The debate on traditional vs automated security has been around for a very long time. Both has its pros and cons, and people have their preferences—but there is still no true result as to which ones are the better option.

In the Philippines, attendance monitoring systems have become common in many establishments. Along with other security systems, corporations are benefiting greatly on the convenience and streamlined security that it provides. But that doesn’t mean that these businesses no longer use traditional security methods.

On the contrary, there are some businesses that see no reason to embrace automated security and stick to traditional methods. There are many more businesses that are surviving without the need to use automated security—but does this mean that automated security isn’t advanced enough to be more highly utilized over the traditional methods?

Take a general look at the two types of security and see try to decide on which one is better over the other.

Traditional Security

Traditional security measures revolve around the guard and their many tasks. In most cases, guards will do just that, guard a certain area for a certain period of time. Anything and everything that may happen should be under their surveillance. Traditional security depends heavily on the presence of the security guards.

The effectiveness of the traditional security methods revolves around the aura that security guards give off. The presence of guards provides many additional benefits such as the following:

• Guards act as a visual deterrent or a symbol of authority and security in a set area.
• When something suspicious transpires, guards on-duty can quickly and easily investigate or move to action.
• Guards can also act as an extremely mobile surveillance system
• Making use of human nature, guards are equipped with multi-sensory capabilities to find or sense something wrong before it happens.

Traditional security methods also take pride in the training that they get for the job. High-end security is considered to be amazing at self-defense and certain martial arts.

But even with all the advantages of traditional security, there are also a number of disadvantages that can easily persuade someone to think twice about trusting in these security services.

Security personnel, particularly those who are outsourced have a small problem regarding their integrity—and with regards to individual guards, there are some things that revolve around human nature that make a security guard unpredictable at his or her job. Some of the concerns are as follows:

• One guard can only be in one place at a time. Their effective range of security is as far as their line of sight.
• Human error is one of the main concerns as people can easily fall asleep on the job, and sometimes their attention can be directed on something else instead of on the job.
• Particularly for outsourced guards, you will never be truly sure of the trustworthiness of a replacement guard.

When it comes to traditional security, human nature is the element that makes it effective, but the possibility of human error is also a significant factor that brings it down.

Automated Security

Security systems are something that the bigger businesses have embraced. In fact, most of them use integrated security systems which are interconnected with each other. The technological advancements of today make automated security systems the better option for most businesses because it makes the whole process way more convenient.

When compared to traditional security measures, automated security beats it because of its wide range of applications. There are many kinds of security systems that are specifically created in order to fulfill certain tasks—and when a highly-advanced device is meticulously tailored to specialize at a certain task, it will certainly do that task better than a simple hired hand would.

The most notable difference between automated security to traditional security is the possible elimination of human error. Automation relies on razor-sharp logic and algorithms instead of fallible human instinct. And since computer systems don’t ever have the temptation to do anything other than their job, then their reliability and integrity is something worth marveling over.

But of course, there will never be a perfect system, and automated security still has its own flaws. Technology today only provides automation that is capable of doing simple repetitive tasks. They can’t be relied on to function by themselves— there is still a requirement for someone to operate the system for it to function to its full capacity.

Automated security systems are also not as threatening and intuitive as having an on-duty guard stationed in an area. At the end of the day, they are only equipment and can only go as far as reacting to a set stimulus. If anything else that is not programmed happened, it may send out an alarm, but won’t be able to do much further.

Key Takeaway

There is a clear difference between automated and traditional security. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but no approach is the clear preference by most of the companies and business around. Access control and attendance monitoring systems in the Philippines are just a part of a larger collection of security systems, and security guards will almost always be present in any business.

With how the two security measures somewhat complement each other, it might not be a question of which one is better, but rather in which way can they help each other maximize security?