2014: a time of heightened security concerns, expectations, and liability.
What place does DIY have in security? I've seen a few articles and posts online lately that question the quality, capability, and liability of DIY security equipment. But what about DIY research? What about a DIY decision?
Let's look at DIY security decision making.
It's a well known fact that consumers are doing more and more research on their own before they ever encounter a living, breathing topic expert, or, dare I say, sales person. We do it with telephones, we do it with automobiles. Our desire is to learn as much as possible BEFORE we engage a human. It's just the way it is today.
Some entities have the funding for and respect organizational liability at a level that demands the strong consideration of engaging professional security consultants.
Some don't have that level of funding.
I want to offer are a few resources to those "DIY researchers" out there looking for information and tools to develop their security solution to use before they engage a topic expert or...uhhhh hmmm....sales person.
In my small corner of the expansive security world, our team offers advice freely. We don't charge for it. It's human nature to be biased, so I completely understand why someone might want to avoid my opinion during the initial stages of their research.
In the end, nothing can take the place of a trusted adviser. Not someone who jumps to "I would do this" five minutes after meeting you. Rather, someone who listens and listens and listens, then asks and asks and asks well before offering advice. Our team has been that resource to many, many people and many, many organizations over a period of more than 25 years. Get a trusted resource...maybe even two or three of them. It's tempting to go it alone by clicking your mouse at your desk. I get it. I'm currently holiday shopping that exact way.
We have accumulated a short list of resources that our team uses regularly to sift through the detailed information, capabilities, and myriad of options available just within just our family of solutions: online cameras, selection guides, calculators, and software tools. Hope you can use these in some way to move your process from awareness to consideration to decision.