What is EdgeConnector?

EdgeConnector is a unique software solution that builds IP-based door access controllers into the heart of the IT infrastructure. It enables real-time, centralised, physical access control, and directly links the management of door access rights to the existing user directory used by most businesses to manage the security of their computers and IT resources.

Most door access systems implement a separate database of card holders, which is managed using proprietary software, and then distributed to door controller 'panels' tucked into cupboards and often wired using archaic technologies. When this database is edited, various processes try to ensure that the data is replicated to each site and door within a certain time, while events at the door are sent to the database/PC to be collated and stored for later reporting.

With EdgeConnector, you benefit from the latest in a growing range of IP-based door controllers, converted to work in real time and to query your existing user directory on each door entry request, just like each login or IT resource usage request. Rather than relying on a separate database, EdgeConnector seamlessly links with Active Directory, to concentrate the storage of all the physical and logical access rights of a user/employee in a single, reliable place.

EdgeConnector is an open solution that leverages existing infrastructure and modern technology, including IP networks, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and all of Active Directory's automatic replication and load-sharing abilities, in order to deliver an integrated access control solution where your user identity data and security policies are unified rather than fragmented.

This tight integration with the user directory enables advanced, hierarchical and role-based management of access to buildings and areas, as well as advanced functions such as location-based authentication, where a user’s computer access is determined by their physical location. At the same time, this complexity can be hidden from the users that typically manage buildings access, using the supplied, easy-to-use software to view and edit only the relevant data, in a controlled and audited manner.

And because access decisions are made centrally and in real time, all changes, location updates and event logs are immediate and global, while, in the rare event of a network failure, the automated backup on the controllers ensure autonomous offline operation, transparent to the user.