Interviews

Jaroslav Barton, Sales Director of Identity and Access Management

HID Global in the Adriatic region: Jaroslav Barton, Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey at HID Global

Worldwide known and over time successfully proven HID’s solutions are available for years on the markets in the Adriatic region through HID’s regional partners network. According to the claims of our respected source, when it comes to business operating performances in the region, HID’s key strength lies in its three main business segments. We have fond our interlocutor in Mr. Jaroslav Barton, the Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in HID Global, who is managing the operations of the said departments in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe, in Russia and in Turkey.

a&s Adria: Dear Mr. Barton, would you be so kind to introduce yourself and to give us a brief overview of your professional career?

Jaroslav Barton: I am the Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey at HID Global. IAM products include physical access control, identity assurance, card printing and issuing, visitor management and government-to-citizen ID solutions. I have been with HID Global since 2005, for 8 years, and in the security business for 16 years.

a&s Adria: HID Global is the trusted source for secure identity solutions for millions of customers around the world and a variety of markets. Widely known for its broad physical access portfolio, the company also has comprehensive solutions for logical access control including strong authentication and credential management, card printing and personalization, visitor management, highly secure government and citizen ID, and identification RFID technologies. HID Global is present in the countries of the Adriatic region through its distributors. What are the technologies that underpin the market performance of HID Global in the Adriatic region? For which HID’s technologies the most interest is shown there?

Jaroslav Barton: Within the Adriatic region, HID Global’s key strengths lie in three major business segments. Historically, HID Global has been synonymous for its access control cards and readers in many markets including the Adriatic region. It is still one of the cornerstones of our business. The second business segment is HID Global’s FARGO line of card printer/encoders. FARGO was acquired by HID Global in 2007 and it had been represented in the Adriatic countries prior to this as well. The third important business segment is Identity Assurance (formerly ActivIdentity) that delivers a full range of authentication and credentialing options that help organisations gain confidence in their users’ identities and effectively protects access to all physical resources, internal networks, systems and services, and public and private cloud-based applications. ActivIdentity has been the leader in authentication solutions in the Adriatic region and was acquired by HID Global in 2011.

a&s Adria: The market in Adriatic region is slowly recovering from the consequences of the recent economic downturn. In almost all countries in the region some new infrastructure projects have been triggered up, and those who, due to the poor economic conditions were temporarily suspended, now are reprogrammed. To what extent are such projects interesting for your company? Do they have the capacity to attract the interest of global industry leaders such as the HID Global?

Jaroslav Barton: We understand that the infrastructure business in any country is highly dependent on the economic situation in the region. Even though security should be a priority at all times, when the budget is tight, customers sometimes have a choice either to postpone a project or to purchase a cost effective security solution.  HID Global offers a robust, comprehensive and secure solution that also provides convenience to end-users. We have found that this is advantageous for existing and potential customers during tough economic phases.

a&s Adria: Each market is characterized by its specifics, which to a greater or lesser extent dictate the form of appearances of each market player. What are the particularities which characterize the market in the Adriatic region? Does HID Global receive sufficient information about the market conditions in the Adriatic region from its regional partners?

Jaroslav Barton: We work closely with our local partners to obtain the relevant information about customer demand within the region. HID Global is an international company offering solutions that can be successfully applied in any part of the world but we understand that it is imperative to tailor solutions to fulfil local requirements.In the Adriatic region we have experienced that that customers carefully evaluate and analyse the cost and benefits of a solution. They want to attain value for money for the lifecycle of the product and solution they purchase. HID Global has been successful in this region, as we are able to offer customers the solutions they desire at a cost effective price.

a&s Adria: HID’s Identity Assurance portfolio delivers a full range of authentication and credentialing options that help user gain confidence in its identities and effectively protect access to all users’ physical resources, internal networks, systems and services, and public and private cloud-based applications. In which way HID Global keeps the balance of the cost, simplicity and security requirements of such solutions and what is the final result of such measures on users side?

Jaroslav Barton: HID Global’s Identity Assurance portfolio provides the broadest and most integrated solutionsavailable in the marketplace in this region. It reduces the risk of network breaches with standards-based strong and layered authentication security solutions. A single, efficient credential management system simplifies and expedites deployment and increases the return on investment (ROI) for customers. The combination of versatile authentication infrastructure with acomprehensive  feature- rich credential management system and easy-to-use smartcards, tokens and OTP devices has resulted in HID Global offering both secure and cost-effective solutions.

a&s Adria: The wide spread of IT forces enterprises to take a review on how they establish trust in users’ identities and grant access to corporate resources and cloud applications. Operating in their businesses, more and more users are using their own mobile devices, desiring the same quick, easy and convenient access to resources at work, as they have in their personal lives. Many of these mobile devices are not owned or managed by the enterprise. In which way ActivIdentity can help organizations to establish the trust in their users’ identities when they are accessing resources from their mobile devices and then manage that access to protect their enterprise and cloud applications?

Jaroslav Barton: Bring your own device (BYOD) is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more popular in the corporate environment. Users expect access on an anytime, anywhere basis. The diversity of the user population and the multitude of devices in use also signal the ineffectiveness of a one-size-fits-all security policy. Organisations are presented with the challenge of finding a workable equilibrium between security and user-convenience. With HID Global’s Identity Assurance solutions, remote access security is achieved with multiple levels of assurance for security services, such as strong authentication, non-repudiation, digital signatures, and encryption.

a&s Adria: As a pioneer in development of NFC based solutions usable for a very wide range of applications, HID Global has successfully implemented its achievements in this field in the university environment, enabling students to use their mobile phones for gaining access into the campus area, rooms, classrooms, libraries, etc. In some countries NFC technology has been already successfully implemented in applications of non-cash payment of products and services. It seems that the possibilities for the application of this technology are almost limitless. In which direction will HID Global focus its R&D activities related to NFC technology in the future?

Jaroslav Barton: NFC technology is one of the main drivers for innovation in various applications, particularly within identification and access control. Therefore, HID Global has invested in the development of solutions that enable NFC based applications. For example, in 2011, we launched the iCLASS SEâ, NFC interoperable reader platform. Today, these readers are a standard solution offered, replacing older technologies. Even if you don’t use NFC today, you can be sure that with the iCLASS SE platform in place, you can add NFC phones or smart devices, as secure credentials any time in the future. The iCLASSSE platform also adds an additional layer of security to RFID technology security. Since iCLASS SE readers are field upgradeable and can be updated any time in the future as an organization’s needs evolve, end-users can be assured that a system can typically be upgraded without physically replacing readers.

HID Global’s iCLASS SE platform includes multi-application iCLASS Seosäthat feature a standards-based card edge and are portable for use on NFC smartphones so that customers can utilize smart cards, mobile devices or both within their physical access control system.  In the most simplistic model, iCLASS Seos credentials are provisioned over-the-air to NFC-enabled smartphones, where they are carried as digital cards and keys that can be “presented” to a reader or lock.

The phone communicates data to a reader or lock, which passes it to the access control system, which opens the door. HID Global and ASSA ABLOY have developed patented technology for the over-the-air provisioning and de-provisioning of access credentials on NFC-equipped mobile phones, and for using these portable credentials in a secure access network.  BlackBerry® now offers smartphones that are NFC-enabled and carry an HID Global applet that can be provisioned with iCLASS credentials.  HID Global is also working with other handset manufacturers to bring the same functionality to their NFC-enabled mobile phones. This secure mobile provisioning model makes it easier to revoke or cancel credentials when they are lost or stolen, and monitor and modify security parameters if required, such as when the threat level increases.

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