ISONAS links physical security system to network

BOULDER – For a lot of businesses, physical security is at least as important as network security. For some, a simple door lock is enough. For others, an access control system using key cards is better.

ISONAS trumps those solutions with a security system that not only reads key cards, it attaches directly to the company’s computer network either over an Ethernet wire or wirelessly – just like the rest of the network – and uses Internet protocol – just like the rest of the network.

The advantage, said ISONAS President Dick Burkley, is there’s no separate equipment needed. Most systems require a control panel in a closet that’s wired directly to a lock at the door.

“The lock has wires that run to the control panel, and there’s frequently other equipment at the door – often a request-to-exit device in the form of an infrared motion detector – also wired back to the panel,” he said.
“With our system there is no control panel, and the lock at the door attaches to our reader-controller, which is just a network appliance. It attaches (to the network) just like any printer or computer.”

The reader-controller communicates over the network using ISONAS’ Crystal Matrix software, which can reside on any computer on the network. Users set up their desired access control rules, and the software tells the reader-controller what to do. Access can be changed and maintained by an authorized user via the company network.

The reader-controller “reads” the radio frequency identification information on a user’s key card. If the access control rules say this person should have access to the building or room within the building, the door unlocks.
The company’s real “claim to fame” is its wireless option, Burkley continued, in which the reader-controller connects with the network without the need for wiring.

Another innovation is if users opt for Power Over Ethernet, reader-controllers don’t need a separate power source because they get electrical power over the same Ethernet wire that connects them to the network.

ISONAS’ customers include organizations like hospitals, industrial buildings and a large RE/MAX franchise that has numerous offices that use one central facility to control all the remote offices. “Being an IP-based product you can access it or use from anywhere in the network,” he said.

The company also works with original equipment manufacturers, but Burkley said these customers prefer not to be named.

The Vizer Group is a major customer. The Westminster-based systems integrator sells a hosted service that is a facilities security solution using ISONAS equipment.

“We have a program that allows a business to put in the access control system with a monthly fee,´ said President Scott Sutton. The cost depends on the number of doors protected, with $125 per month the highest to date, he said.

Vizer took ISONAS’ Crystal Matrix software one step further by writing a Web interface for it so it can be accessed from any Web browser. “It takes the computer component out of the mix of the installation, which stabilizes the platform,” Sutton said. “In a normal scenario you need a server to host the software that controls the reader. We’ve taken that computer out of the mix.”

Vizer is currently setting up the system in all Office Evolution sites. The Boulder-based executive suites company has nine offices in the Front Range.

ISONAS was founded in 1999 by five partners: Burkley, Chief Executive Officer Michael Radicella, Vice President of Manufacturing Roger Matsumoto, Shirl Jones and Kris Chapman.

“We’re a group that has known each other from college days and the Air Force,” Radicella said. In the mid-1990s they started a software consultancy called the Stoker Group. “Five years later we decided to look for other things to do and fell into the access control industry.”

Launching the company didn’t cost much, Radicella said, but developing the product did. “Not so much for equipment capital but more for human capital. Over the first five years we put in millions of dollars in time and expenses.”

During the last year ISONAS spent about $800,000 retooling some plastic injection molds, he said.
The privately held company doesn’t release financial details.

Whether it’s profitable or not depends on the audience he’s addressing, Radicella said.

“ISONAS is a company that has been waiting for the industry to catch up,” he said. A few years ago no one was interested in IP access control because “the industry was stuck using technology developed 25 years ago. In the last couple of years IP phones and video cameras running over IP became huge. All of that had people looking for IP solutions. Now they are looking for IP readers.”

ISONAS is growing, Radicella said. In the last year revenues have jumped by a factor of 10. In the last year the company grew from four to 13 employees and moved from 2,500 to 13,000 square feet.

The space is needed because final assembly, configuration and shipping of reader-controllers and “credentials” – familiar key cards the size of credit cards, “clamshell cards” and key fob-size cards – are done on-site. The company uses local companies to manufacture circuit boards and casings.

The name ISONAS, which the company’s marketing consultant suggested be capitalized for consistency, used to stand for “integrated secure open network access system,” Burkley said. “That’s a real mouthful, and we don’t use it at all.”

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

ISONAS Inc.

6325 Gunpark Drive, Suite 101
Boulder, CO 80301
303-567-6516
Dick Burkley, President,
Michael Radicella, CEO
Employees: 13
Primary business: access control systems
Founded: 1999

on Facebook on LinkedIn