You say tomayto, I say tomahto. PSIM has a definintion. Really!

USBX has adopted the PSIM concept I wrote about last year and is tracking it. In fact, USBX had a “get-to-know-PSIM” breakfast on Tuesday morning at ASIS. John Mack and Gavin Long were kind enough to invite me to kick it off with a few words about the origin and scope of PSIM. The room was packed with a nice combination of end users, big integrators, and PSIM vendors. I was pleased to see so many friends of mine there, especially Chuck Teubner from VidSys, Ajay Jain from Quantum Secure, and Omar Hussain from Imprivata.

Unfortunately, as the morning progressed I saw that I did not do a very good job of defining the PSIM space, since Quantum Secure and Imprivata both had to really stretch to include themselves in the conversation. Don’t get me wrong, I have very high regard for the solutions from both companies and believe strongly that Imprivata and Quantum Secure advance the technological discussion in our industry. But they ain’t PSIM vendors.

VidSys is. So are Proximex and Orsus. DVTel is one. And I’d put Cisco in there, too. The defining characteristic of PSIM is a technology whose primary purpose is to answer the questions “what’s happening?” and “is it working?” Imprivata and Quantum Secure are more in the authentication and authorization business, setting and enforcing policies about identity and access to assets. See if you can list other PSIM technologies for yourself.

Comments

[Steve Hunt]

Several of you have commented to me that PSIM should have the same "limited" definition that SIM has in the IT security world, namely, glorified event management. So Orsus and Proximex would be in, but video analytics would be out. You are probably right that this sub-category needs its own bucket, but I'm not ready to slice and dice PSIM like that quite yet.

[E Jones]

Not that PSIM needs to be sliced and diced (nice continuation of the tomayto/tomahto theme, BTW...)
PSIM is a keystone in the security convergence space. However, identities, along with events, and information traverse within this larger, burgeoning security arena. PSIM is a technology whose primary purpose is to answer the questions “what’s happening?” and “is it working?” What is missing is the identity - the “Who” in the traditional who/what/when paradigm.
No true convergence can be complete without having adequate/accurate systems and processes that account for the "Who".

[Steve Hunt]

Thank you for your comment. PSIM is not a complete security solution. It is a set of technologies and processes to answer the questions "what's happening?" and "Is it working?" But of course it is built - as all security systems must be built - on authentication and authorization. The four fundamental categories of security must be met in order. Authentication is first. Authorzation is the next. Then comes Administration and Audit (what's happening and is it working).