How Cytiva revamped physical security across global locations
Cytiva, a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of therapeutics, upgraded to unified security across its global locations. To ease infrastructure demands, they committed to a cloud-first approach, deploying both Security Center hosted and Genetec ClearID.
The company
With a rich heritage in biotech, Cytiva provides technologies and services that advance and accelerate the development and manufacturing of therapeutics. Operating in over 40 countries worldwide, the company drives customer-centric innovation ranging from fundamental biological research to the development of pioneering vaccines, biologic drugs, novel cell, and gene therapies. With over 100 locations globally, Cytiva knows that shaping the future of life sciences requires a firm grip on all aspects of security.
The challenge
When Cytiva was acquired by a new parent company, there was an immediate need to change out and upgrade the physical security systems and infrastructure. They wanted to move away from older, disparate on-premises solutions and were committed to a cloud-first approach to minimize infrastructure demands on their team. The company also had big expansion plans on the horizon, so they wanted a scalable security solution that could meet immediate requirements and evolve alongside future needs.
The solution
A hybrid deployment model
Using Security Center hosted, the Synergis™ access control system is fully hosted in the cloud, while the Omnicast™ surveillance system and all video recordings are managed and stored at various sites.
Efficient cardholder management
The ClearID solution has not only helped to standardize and streamline processes for employee access requests, but higher levels of automation have resulted in a 30% efficiency gain in resources.
Stronger cybersecurity resilience
“In the past, staying on top of vulnerability patching, software updates, and just managing those environments was challenging. When the vendor handles the bulk of that, it saves us time and offers us more reliability,” said Allen.
Expanding into new possibilities
Further site expansions and additional feature add-ons are mapped out in a 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year phased plan. This includes piloting the Genetec Mission Control™ decision support module and leveraging investments for operational gains.
“Security Center hosted allows us to expand security across new and existing sites quickly, using cloud services where possible. During a global, company-wide upgrade like this, adding more and more servers just gets unwieldy. So with Security Center hosted and the hybrid deployment, we’re able to operate leaner.”
Larry Allen, Technical Product Owner for Facilities, Security and Crisis Management for CYTIVA
Results
Today, the Cytiva team manages access control and video surveillance using Genetec Security Center across 17 of the most critical research and manufacturing sites. At Cytiva’s smaller sites, the company has installed the Genetec Streamvault™ all-in-one appliance which comes pre-loaded with the video surveillance and access control solutions for easy deployment. The Federation™ feature bridges all systems together, delivering a unified security view.
The team also implemented the Genetec ClearID smarter access management solution to streamline employee access requests, enhance automation, and strengthen audit quality. According to Allen, “Since installing Genetec ClearID, we have improved our workflow processes, so there’s just less time required for provisioning and managing employee credentials and access rights, which has been very beneficial to our team.”