STERLING, Va. – December 3, 2012 – RedCloud, the industry's fastest-growing provider of web-based, physical access control systems, today announced that the Liberty Public School District has deployed RedCloud Enterprise – a scalable, web-based access control network appliance that enables Liberty to manage security across 22 school facilities, in turn enhancing the safety and well being of thousands of students, faculty and staff.
Liberty Public School District serves the residents of approximately 85 square miles in Clay County. The school district, located just northeast of Kansas City, is responsible for more than 11,600 students in grades preschool to 12. In fall 2011, Liberty sought to transition from a costly, legacy access control system that lacked scalability to a web-based access control system that could remotely manage all facility access with integrated physical and logical security capabilities.
“It became evident that our previous access control system was not only falling short from a functionality and scalability standpoint, but also became increasingly difficult to justify due to onerous recurring costs,” said Curt Laven, Technology Specialist, Liberty Public School District. “RedCloud Enterprise provides Liberty with a single network appliance solution from which we can now easily manage security for 22 buildings through a web-based interface that provides administrators with real-time visibility into security activity at each building.”
To ensure a seamless migration that would not interrupt day-to-day security and operations, Liberty turned to American Digital Security (ADS), a leading security systems provider – and a RedCloud authorized system integrator – to recommend, design and install a secure, physical access control system that seamlessly integrated with video surveillance, visitor management and identity management systems.
RedCloud’s converged access control solution and ADS’ security systems integration expertise has delivered several key benefits to Liberty Public School District, including:
• Unparalleled scalability – Liberty now leverages RedCloud Enterprise to manage more than 150 doors and 2,000 users across 22 buildings, and RedCloud’s resilient, scalable software platform allows Liberty to easily add/remove users and doors as needs change.
• True convergence of physical and logical security – RedCloud integrates seamlessly with Active Directory to deliver directory-to-directory, identities (cardholders) and polices synchronization between physical and logical access control. Liberty can provision changes to a user’s IT and building access permissions in real-time. In one Liberty school alone, this integration, which prevented out-of-date user information from being imported from the legacy system to RedCloud, significantly improved security and confined access grants to only the current list of people that were supposed to be allowed in the school.
• Role-based access control (RBAC) – RedCloud enables unified management of access privileges to IT systems and building doors based on assigned user roles. This RBAC capability enables Liberty to ensure that if a faculty member or staffer switches schools or roles, access to IT systems and doors automatically adjusts in real-time.
• Flexible, open architecture platform – With the legacy access control solution, Liberty was restricted to system access from a single client workstation in one building. RedCloud’s 100% browser-based web application not only enables the IT and security teams to manage student, faculty, staff and visitor access from any location and a range of mobile devices, but has also provided Principals and Administrators with real-time visibility into activity at their school, ranging from alerts when doors are propped open to lockdowns for bomb threats.
“With a single RedCloud Enterprise network appliance, Liberty has been able to shift from a restricting user access to single, shared workstation to a web-based solution that has provided IT, security and Administrators across 22 buildings with unprecedented visibility and control of their security management operation,” said Buddy Mason, ADS President. “The flexibility of RedCloud’s platform has even allowed Liberty to extend beyond simple access control. For example, RFID readers have been inserted into photocopiers so that faculty can use access cards instead of lengthy account codes for copies.”
“Whether building security is being managed by a physical security team, the IT team – or both – forward-thinking customers such as the Liberty Public School District increasingly recognize the benefits of a converged access control solution that they can easily manage and scale,” said Terry Vellek, RedCloud Vice President of Business Development. “The education market is one of RedCloud’s largest and fastest growing sectors because customers are searching for both the improved security and costs savings that RedCloud’s Security Management Platform delivers.”
RedCloud Enterprise is a web-based, access control network appliance that enables organizations of all sizes to secure their facilities, people and assets at anytime and anywhere from any standard web browserand is exclusively available through a global network of authorized integrators.
