Connection is no more a simple word, it represents our society and the world we are living in. Being a connected generation, which is always in touch with other users through our digital network, has changed the way we act. Now we expect to always have all the information we need at our fingertips, whenever we seek them out, we search and browse them, or we want to share them with friends and family. Although to do so, we need digital tools, like smartphones, laptops, or computers. These devices are always with us, they are the first thing we check in the morning and the last thing we control before going to bed; we use them to work, during our free time, and also when we run errands. We are always connected, and so are the smart solutions that surround us.
SMART SOLUTIONS ARE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER, AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THEY ARE CONNECTED TO THE CLOUD
Smart solutions are always connected to each other, as they continuously exchange data, and, most importantly, they are connected to the cloud. Whether familiar with the topic, you will also know that today we are often in contact with the digital twin of the objects around us. Digital twins have become an increasingly widespread concept when the advancement of Industry 4.0 has accelerated its growth. They can be defined as the effortless integration of data between a physical and virtual machine in either direction (A.Fuller, 2020), or, in a simpler way, as the digital copy of the objects that surround us (like home and office appliances or means we use daily like cars or bikes) that communicate with the users through their smartphone or any other personal device. Thanks to digital twins you can now, for example, book a bicycle and have the coordinates to reach it through the cloud, as the bike itself gives them to you. You could also book a working station in your favorite coworking spacein the city center, and find everything set up along with your needs (from the desk to the wifi), so that you just need to park your bike and enter the building. Once you have access to the coworking every door on your path will open, as the building itself welcomes you. Thanks to digital twins and cloud technology smart cities come alive and offer a seamless experience.
MOBILE CREDENTIAL BECOME THE ANSWER TO ALL THE DIFFERENT ACCESSIBILITY NEEDS, THE SMARTPHONE BECOMES THE “KEY” TO ACCESS ALL THE SERVICES
Smart technologies not only allow people to manage resources and buildings but also improve citizens’ lives. Imagine you could access parking and means of transportation with your smartphone, without trying to find a safe place to park your bicycle and push scooter every time, queuing at the station every morning, or struggling to take tickets on the different websites. Abris sécurisés, for example, is a service providing secure bicycle shelters in the city of Paris. Thanks to it people can park their bike in a safe place whether they need it or they don’t have a place at their home. Smart shelters not only incentivize people to move with a sustainable means, safeguarding the planet but also allow them to save time and resources, as their vehicle could be parked in a smart place with just a click. Virtual credentials become the answer to all the different accessibility needs, as the smartphone becomes the “key” to access all the different services in a city.
FULLY FUNCTIONAL SOLUTIONS ARE ESSENTIAL TO FORESEE FUTURE SCENARIOS AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTIONS
Therefore, it can be noticed that the whole abstract concept of “access” has changed. Now people can access not only spaces, but also resources, and they can do it through different digital tools, in a simpler and easier way, whenever they need it. The advent of modern technologies has revolutionized not only the user’s experience but also the manager’s ones. Fully functional solutions allow managers to simplify the operations, to understand the degree of utilization of spaces and resources, and to gain important data, useful to foresee future scenarios and take appropriate actions.
Initiatives to redesign cities and make them smarter and more sustainable are increasing worldwide. Smart solutions are fundamental to reach this goal, Sofia Locks is aware of this and, for this reason, it has developed an advanced access control engine that fits any kind of solution. Technology allows smart cities to be understood as communities in which citizens, businesses, and institutions collaborate to achieve systems integration and efficiency, citizen engagement, and a continually improving quality of life. In this context, technology has also to streamline operations, ease people’s lives and managers operations, lower efforts and cut costs to get things done, make spaces and assets accessible when they are needed, and enforce security. When this is all accomplished technology disappears, and becomes natural in our environment and our society. We at Sofia Locks believe that this will happen soon, for this reason, we integrate cloud-native technologies, since those are the technologies that are coupled with our values.
