Open Enterprise Security

I had the incredible opportunity to visit Hanoi, Vietnam a couple of weeks ago to train our Asia/Pacific sales staff on Sun's offer for the video surveillance market.  The trip alone was an experience I'll never forget.   I was old enough during the Vietnam war to remember the daily news stories about the events taking place both in Vietnam and on U.S. soil related to this time in history.  So, visiting the country of Vietnam held a certain personal interest to me.  But, since this was a business trip, I'll stick to the topic at hand...

 My audience represented countries from all over the region including India, Australia, Vietnam (of course), China, Singapore, Korea...and the list of opportunities for video surveillance were incredible.   Depending on your involvement in the industry, you may know that this region is predicted by the pundits (i.e., Frost & Sullivan, JP Freeman, IMS - among others) to be a strong growth area for IP video surveillance.  Of course, the shear size of a country like China drives a lot of that.  Their size, compounded with their 'Safe City Project' designed to bolster security in around 660 cities  (to include deployment of vdeo surveillance cameras and networks) accounts for a significant amount of the projected 47% compound annual growth rate through 2012 (Frost & Sullivan's estimates). IMS Research has stated that "The Chinese market for video servers (video encoders) used in security applications increased by a massive 60% in 2007".

It was exciting to discuss opportunities the sales teams had uncovered - anything from airports to railways to telcos wanting to host 'video as a service'.  And, with some of the economies in the region also predicted to have heavy growth potential (I read Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies themselves) I certainly see potential for investment in the underlying security infrastructure - including video surveillance. 

 Another view of the industry the countries in Asia takes is from the manufacturing perspective - which also becomes a contributor to the growth in the economy.  A good portion of the video surveillance equipment (cameras, DVRs, encoders, etc.) is manufactured in countries such as Tiawan and Korea.  An article from asmag.com has several interesting points on this topic including: "Taiwanese surveillance equipment makers...acheived 27 percent annual revenue growth during the first half of 2007.  Average earnings growth was 41 percent." 

 Now, I do have to acknowledge the references I have made here are prior to the recent global economic downturn.  So, it's anyone's best guess how that will affect the video surveillance market.  It's something I'm watching with extreme interest. And would definitely welcome comments from all of you!