Bosch Building Technologies is one of the five founding members of the newly announced Open Security and Safety Alliance

Grasbrunn, Germany – Bosch Building Technologies, Hanwha Techwin, Milestone Systems, Pelco, and Vivotek Inc. jointly established the Open Security & Safety Alliance, Inc. This alliance is a non-profit, non-stock corporation that brings together likeminded organizations in order to outline specifications for a common standardized platform for security and safety solutions. “With this initiative, we set the foundation for the creation of a secure and reliable ecosystem for the security and safety industry that brings together hardware manufacturers, software developers, integrators, specifiers, consultants, users and many others,” says Tanja Rückert, President of Bosch Building Technologies. Collaboration and the definition of commonly agreed standards and specifications enables industry players to focus on the aspects that really add value for their customers and opens up new application possibilities. The current planned framework provides such standards and specifications for components including an industry-specific operating system, IoT infrastructure and a collective approach for data security and privacy. “The coming together of different industry stakeholders who appreciate the need for better standardization and innovation in this market couldn’t come at a better moment. Our collective end users depend on us to drive this new way of working together. This is a great initiative for Bosch and the other Alliance members, but ultimately the end users of security and safety solutions will be the biggest beneficiaries,” says Bernhard Schuster, Executive Vice President with responsibility for Sales and Marketing as well as Security and Safety Systems at Bosch Building Technologies.

Connectivity and data-centric solutions drive need for collaboration

Bosch Building Technologies sees the importance of a shift in the market towards data-centric solutions, which deliver greater benefits to customers. The current market is lacking common standards, making such a shift impossible. The existence and usage of many proprietary systems make the practical use of data complex and challenging. “Standardization, connectivity and seamless, cross-company integration is necessary if we want to provide innovative, IoT- and AI-based, data-driven solutions to our customers,” says Rückert. “This shift will require higher data security and privacy standards and should be consistently applied by all stakeholders. The alliance is the ideal forum to define these common standards.”

Many industry players involved

The establishment of the alliance by the five founding members – who are also forming its board – is the result of intense discussion and exchange of ideas with different companies active in video surveillance, access control, intrusion and building automation. The involved parties were ranging from manufacturers to component suppliers, software developers and integrators as well as distributors and current solution users. Currently, some 30 additional companies have already expressed an interest in joining the alliance. Ambarella, Anixter, AndroVideo, Kings Security and NetApp are the first early adopters who signed the membership. The Alliance is open to players within the security and safety markets as well as companies of adjacent markets.

Security and Safety Things GmbH will closely cooperate with the alliance

The Security and Safety Things GmbH (SAST), a recently founded start-up headquartered in Munich, will closely cooperate with the Open Security & Safety Alliance to ensure an innovative and compatible IoT platform for its members. SAST is creating a free operating system and a digital marketplace to deploy and manage software applications, initially for the security camera market. In future, SAST plans to extend the platform to additional IoT domains as well. SAST is set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH and is part of the Bosch group’s strategic move into new, digital IoT-based growth areas. Going forward, SAST plans to win additional investors to further open up to external stakeholders, and to accelerate its ecosystem.