Overview of ACS with free software

    One of the interesting trends in the Russian market of access control systems is the appearance of manufacturers that present their full-featured software absolutely free.

    The magical appeal of the word “free” as a magnet attracts new customers, but the free one always has a flip side, we’ll take a look at this “dark” side.

    We will clear it of marketing layers, and tell you how not to get on the hook of marketers.



    It is clear that companies should make money on something, it would be logical to assume that the costs of developing software are simply included in the cost of the controllers. Therefore, let's start with the controllers, consider the characteristics and cost, and then the software functionality.

    Moreover, the software of each manufacturer works only with controllers manufactured by it.

    RusGard Company


    The company was founded in May 2010 in Moscow. It offers the widest range of equipment under the RusGuard brand , including equipment unique to the Russian market, for example, the ACS-102-CE-B (POE) controller with an integrated POE splitter, which allows you to power not only the controller itself with readers, but also locks, latches etc.

    Or ACS-102-CE-B (WF) has a built-in WiFi module that supports all modern traffic encryption protocols: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA-PSK TKIP / AES, WPA2-PSK TKIP / AES; and it’s easy to configure via the built-in WEB interface, built-in Wi-Fi is found in the Russian market, but not at all.

    In total 11 basic models of controllers and 3 specialized for switching from an already installed access control system based on Legos equipment.

    In addition to controllers, Rusguard offers a range of RDR-202-Multi readers that read all the standards known to science - Cotag (Siemens-Bewator), Indala-26, Indala-44, HIDProx Card II, Em-marine, Mifare Classic, Mifare Plus, Mifare Ultralight, Mifare Ultralight C, DESfire EV1, icode SLI, NXP SmartMX JCOP, Infineon Gemalto TOP.

    The company "Sentinel"


    Represented by the largest Russian alliance of companies, Rubezh, working in the field of security systems for 25 years. They offer a classic series of three controllers under the Strazh brand, which 80% of ACS manufacturers have in their assortment.

    And a whole series of unremarkable goods under the same brand - readers, electromechanical, locks, electromagnetic locks, door closers, exit buttons, identifiers, which any more or less large trading house has in its assortment.

    Company "Era of new technologies"


    In 2011, it introduced the classic line of ACS controllers under the Era brand , the advantages of which, as then and now, are the low price, the cheapest controller among the manufacturers we are considering, are represented by them, the Era 500 controller - 5 500 rubles .

    Company "Stork"


    The Russian developer and manufacturer of access control and management systems from St. Petersburg has been successfully operating in the security systems market since 2000. They offer an assortment of 5 controllers, the only one of 4 of which supports the RS-485 communication interface.

    Comparison table of characteristics and prices (Clickable) * for Era controllers, the memory capacity of keys and events for one access point is indicated, for two points the capacity will be divided in half. Now that we know exactly which controller to choose and how much it will cost, let's proceed to the software.

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    Software


    Well, here we come to the sweetest thing - free software. In addition to the ones we are considering, there are also a bunch of companies offering this or that software module for free; only those who offer all the classic ACSD functionality for free have come into our review.

    « RusGuard Soft » from «RusGuard» Company:

    Interface screenshots
                           

    " AC Tech " from the company "Sentinel":

    Interface screenshots
             

    " ENT Access Control " from the company "Era of New Technologies":

    Interface screenshots
                                

    StorkAccess from Stork:

    Interface screenshots
        

    The classic functionality is common to all - configuration of controllers, real-time monitoring of events occurring in the system, setting user rights, creating personnel cards, editor of badge templates, time tracking, graphic plans, photo verification, sms and e-mail alerts.

    An interesting difference between RusGuard is the availability of the RusGuard Cloud service with which you can configure connections between system elements without a static IP address, the service is also completely free.

    The second difference between RusGuard is that the module for editing the template of passes in the free version allows you to create only one template, if you want to use a larger number of templates you will have to pay extra from 20,000 to 300,000 rubles.

    Integration


    Well-known software and hardware manufacturers are quite selective in integrating into their software. That is why the number of integrations is a significant quality metric.

    Integrations Rusgard The
    undoubted leader in the number of integration with both third-party software manufacturers and equipment manufacturers.

    • Integration with fire alarm systems
    • Integration with video surveillance systems (Macroscop, Panasonic, ISS, ITV, Ivideon)
    • Integration with 1C
    • Integration Alphalogic PSIM - a system for monitoring and managing security systems and building engineering systems
    • Integration with VisitorControl Visitor Registration System
    • Integration with Abbyy PassportReader
    • ZKTeco Biometric Integration

    Most integration modules in Rusgarg are paid, on average, from 20,000 rubles.

    Integration Era of New Technologies
    • With ZKTeco Biometrics
    • CCTV Line

    Integration Stork
    • CCTV Line

    Sentinel Integration
    • CCTV RVi

    Types of databases


    The type of database will directly affect the cost and, in my opinion, even more important, the speed of

    Microsoft SQL Server
    RusGuard Soft and AC Tech use Microsoft SQL Server, which is free in Express edition, which has certain limitations.

    The main limitation of SQL Server Express is the maximum database size of 10 GB.

    Is it possible to quickly fill up an ACS database up to 10 GB? The average figure obtained by experts is 3 to 4 years.
    Of course, it greatly depends on the number of employees and the intensity of use, the main volume will be given by photographs and scans of passports, when using such functionality.

    It is also important to understand that 10 GB is the point of no return, that is, if the base is filled up to 10 GB, it can only beupgrade to the paid version or throw it away.

    If you absolutely do not want to do this categorically, you need to carefully monitor the volume of the database, and start cleaning it until it reaches a volume of 10 GB.

    Firebird
    "ENT Access Control" and "StorkAccess" use Firebird which is known to be completely free.

    Even an inexperienced person in databases, at this moment the question begins to creep in, why does someone use paid databases, and someone is free.

    Both companies, for which by the way honor and praise, honestly warn you that you may have to face a decrease in productivity.

    From the Stork documentation
    A large amount of information in the database can lead to a decrease in the
    performance of the software package for two reasons. First, the
    large size of the tables degrades query performance. Secondly, with a large amount of data, FireBird can automatically increase the size of the database file, which leads to an additional increase in the system resources of a personal computer.

    From the documentation of the Era of New Technologies
    The developers did not impose a limit on the number of remote clients, but with the simultaneous operation of a large number of remote clients, it is possible to "slow down" the program. It depends both on the power of the computer on which the server part is located and on the load on the local network.

    Database Security

    I can not help but mention the study of the security of databases of manufacturers of access control systems, in which, among the considered by us turned out to be “ENT Access Control”, AC Tech was not investigated. No vulnerabilities were found in StorkAccess and RusGuard Soft.

    conclusions


    The issue of the cost of software becomes important when a large number of client licenses are needed, this is mainly in demand for large companies with a wide geographically distributed structure.

    But for such companies, the issue of free software is unlikely to be the main one, the cost of ownership of the system, which in turn depends on the reliability, security, speed of the software, quality of technical support, quality of hardware, and availability of the hardware base, will be much more important for them.

    And taking into account the fact that many manufacturers of access control systems with paid software use a licensing scheme in which only server software is paid, and client jobs are provided for free, the benefits of companies with free software are minimized.

    For medium and small companies in which there is a small number of personnel, and they are unlikely to be able to experience the problems of speed and security of the database on themselves, and they may first encounter the problem of database overflow in 5-7 years.

    For them, the initial cost of access control systems, the cost as a whole, with controllers, readers for installation services, etc. will be important.

    And given the fact that the most popular, it’s the cheapest controller for access control systems in Russia, the Z-5R costs only 590 rubles, the same conclusion begs the question of free software will not be the main one.

    If you summarize all of the above, it turns out that free software is more of a marketing tool than a serious criterion for choosing an ACS.

    This conclusion is confirmed by the leader that we identified - Rusguard company, the leader in software, in hardware, and the leader in the number and cost of paid modules.

    If you are interested in ACS with free software, or you want to compare the capabilities of free and paid software - we are always in touch .

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