HID Global, a company with a strong, diversified presence in the areas of physical access control and identification as well as logical access, announced today that it has acquired Nectar smart card technology based on the Microsoft .NET technology. The Nectar smart card technology was acquired from StepNexus and Hive Minded.
The announcement of this technology acquisition made at CARTES, a card technology tradeshow and conference occurring this week in France.
According to Dr. Selva Selvaratnam, the senior vice president and chief technology officer for HID Global, the technology for the .NET framework allows HID to build new solutions for using card systems.
"Fundamentally, Microsoft .NET Framework is a software technology that is available on all the latest Microsoft Windows Operating systems. The technology conforms to the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specifications and allows portable pre-coded solutions to be built rapidly. Microsoft tools are available that support this development environment."
Dr. Selvaratnam explained that the technology which HID Global has acquired gives the benefits of greater flexibility for HID and its customers and VARs, while also leveraging worldwide knowledge of .NET as a development platform. He wrote in from the CARTES show in France to tell SIW readers that:
This technology will allow HID to:(a) License reference implementations so that Smart cards, Embedded Systems and readers so that .NET supported systems become available through difference vendors. This is in keeping with the open nature of the technology.
(b) .NET will allow VAR's and Resellers to capitalise on the significant investments they would have made in .NET programmers and software bases.
(c) Development will be supported on Microsoft .NET Development platforms. This again leverages existing experience and code bases in Windows programmers.
(d) HID's products will support .NET allowing the 'write once use everywhere philosophy' to be adopted. This reduces time to market, code maintenance, reliability and quality of embedded products and Smart Cards.
(e) HID will be in a position to supply Smart Cards, Embedded Boards and Readers that can be tailored easily using a common language and Microsoft Development tools to meet specific OEM/VAR functionality. This allows flexibility and differentiation in the marketplace for our customers..
(f) HID supports multiple platforms and operating systems with their Smart Cards. In keeping with this strategy, .NET will allow be offered thereby increasing the range and types of products on offer. The 'one stop shopping' concept will move a step further.
