Data centers stand out for biometric access control adoption amid flagging demand

Biometrics deployments for physical access control are on the decline post COVID-19, according to an IPVM report (subscription required and recommended), but with some notable exceptions in high-security environments, including for data centers and server rooms.

The survey from IPVM found that fingerprint biometric scanners, traditionally the top choice for biometric access control at doors, were decided against or even replaced in many cases in favor of contactless technologies like RFID and Bluetooth. Comments from system integrators suggest some interest in contactless biometrics, like iris recognition, but several respondents noted that the novel coronavirus has reversed recent trends away from physical credentials like access cards.

Facial recognition has not been widely adopted, and although multiple respondents referred to orders for ZKTeco face biometrics and temperature scanners, the integrations they reported were simplistic or did not use all available features.

High costs are also seen as a barrier for biometrics deployments, along with privacy concerns.

Another barrier to biometric scanner deployment is the proliferation of mobile devices which allow biometrics or other credentials to be used without deploying any new hardware.

Server rooms, IT closets and data centers were observed to be commonly considered a good fit for biometrics, an observation also made from a pair of different angles.

Datacenters.com backs this up in an editorial reviewing the advantages of biometrics and suggesting that their integration with systems leveraging multi-factor authentication and public key infrastructure bodes well for longer-term growth.

ACTS also draws a parallel between the security requirements, and therefore associated benefit of biometrics, in data centers and airport environments, in an editorial for Security Today.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometrics  |  Bluetooth  |  contactless biometrics  |  data center  |  facial recognition  |  iris biometrics  |  mobile device  |  privacy  |  RFID