Inside Hanwha Vision’s Strategy for Entering the Access Control Market

Hanwha Vision, long recognized for its video surveillance portfolio, is moving into the access control market with the release of OnCAFE (Cloud Access For Everyone), a cloud-hosted Access Control as a Service platform. The new offering is designed to extend the company’s role as a provider of integrated security and vision solutions, unifying access, video, alarms and other functions under one architecture.

“Hanwha Vision is positioning itself not just as a video company, but as a broader security and vision solutions provider,” Tom Cook, Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Operations, North America, told SecurityInfoWatch. “OnCAFE is intended to unify security, surveillance, and facility management tools for users from one source. The ability to connect video, access, alarms and more, all under the same architecture, offers operational simplicity and stronger situational awareness.”

OnCAFE is compatible with Hanwha’s WAVE VMS and OnCloud video platforms. Cook noted that many customers have asked the company to provide more security products due to its success in video, and that “access control along with audio are natural additions to our product lines.”

From an end-user standpoint, Cook said the operational advantages of moving access control to the cloud are significant. “Cloud systems allow administrators or security managers to manage access control systems remotely via a web interface or mobile application, granting or revoking access, monitoring activity, and adjusting settings from anywhere,” he said. “They also have the ability to easily scale, adding new locations or users without requiring local infrastructure. New sites can be added through a centralized platform. In addition, automatic updates and maintenance handled by the service provider will improve uptime and always have the latest software running without the need to schedule technicians on site.”

For security integrators, Cook advised that careful planning and discovery are essential before deployment. “There are so many challenging questions an integrator or manufacturer should ask an end user to define what is best for their needs in terms of the number of doors, administrators, buildings or existing systems,” he said. “I suggest asking questions to find out if the customer has a more distributed or dynamic environment, which would make a stronger case for cloud.

Cook added that other considerations come into play as well. “Also, what are the customer’s internet capabilities and what do they expect? Does the customer have an existing access control system and is it integrated into other products? If that is of interest, then our Cloud Access Control will use standard APIs supported by the service providers. There are other items that are key such as existing hardware compatibility, security and compliance, especially if the application is in government, finance or healthcare.”

Hanwha Vision is featuring OnCAFE at GSX 2025 (Booth #2326), where the company is presenting live demonstrations of the platform’s features and scalability. With OnCAFE, the company is extending its reach into access control while reinforcing its strategy to deliver a complete cloud-based ecosystem for security professionals.