Jake Rackham, Group Managing Director, Evolution discusses the practical priorities shaping enterprise security in 2026, from system integration and flexible deployment to skilled engineers, AI applications and service partnerships.
Every January, our industry is flooded with predictions. AI will revolutionise everything.
Cloud adoption will accelerate. Digital transformation will reshape how we work.
These narratives are not wrong, exactly, but they often miss what matters most to the people responsible for keeping organisations secure.
After 16 years working across the security sector, from engineering roles through to leading an integrator operating across multiple countries, I have learned that the gap between industry commentary and operational reality can be significant.
The technology trends are real, but the challenges security leaders face day-to-day are often more fundamental: Systems that do not talk to each other, vendors who overpromise and underdeliver, aging infrastructure that needs replacing and the constant pressure to demonstrate value to the wider business.
So rather than offering another set of predictions, I want to focus on what I believe will genuinely shape enterprise security decisions in 2026 and what security leaders should be thinking about as they plan the year ahead.
One of the most persistent frustrations I hear from security directors and facilities managers is the challenge of managing disconnected systems.
Access control from one manufacturer, video surveillance from another, intruder detection from a third, fire systems operating entirely separately.
When an incident occurs, correlating information across these platforms is manual, time-consuming and prone to gaps.
The industry has talked about integration for years, but we are now reaching a tipping point.
Research suggests that over 70% of security professionals are using or actively planning unified systems, with a significant proportion replacing legacy equipment specifically to enable better integration.
Open architecture platforms (those that allow different manufacturers’ devices to work together through standard protocols) are the expectation rather than the exception.
For enterprise security leaders, this shift has practical implications.
When evaluating any new system, the question is no longer just “what does this do?” but “how does this work with everything else we have?”
The organisations getting the most value from their security investments are those treating integration as a core requirement from the outset, not an afterthought.
The conversation around cloud adoption has matured considerably.
A few years ago, it often felt binary: Move to the cloud or get left behind. Today, the reality is more nuanced.
Organisations are adopting hybrid approaches, evaluating each workload based on performance requirements, cost implications and data residency considerations.
For some applications, particularly multi-site access management or remote monitoring, cloud-based solutions offer genuine advantages – automatic updates, simplified maintenance and the ability to manage dispersed locations from a single platform.
For others, particularly where bandwidth constraints exist or where regulatory requirements mandate local data storage, on-premises systems remain the appropriate choice.
The key development is flexibility. Enterprise security leaders are increasingly demanding the ability to make these decisions workload by workload, rather than committing to a single deployment model.
This approach extends the life of existing infrastructure while allowing teams to adopt new capabilities where they add genuine operational value.
While the industry focuses heavily on technology trends, there is a more fundamental challenge that receives far less attention: Where will the next generation of security engineers come from?
The physical security sector faces a genuine skills shortage.
The software and systems side of our industry is advancing rapidly with cloud platforms, network integration, increasingly sophisticated analytics etc and this places significant demands on technically minded engineers who need to stay current with evolving technology.
Yet the physical fundamentals of our work remain unchanged: Devices still need installing out in the field, head-end panels still require terminating and someone still needs to be on site making it all work.
No amount of cloud adoption or AI advancement changes the fact that security systems require skilled hands to install, commission and maintain.
This combination of accelerating technical complexity alongside enduring physical requirements is why we need to keep pushing to bring new engineers into the industry.
It is not just a recruitment challenge for individual organisations.
It is an industry-wide issue that affects service delivery, project timelines and ultimately the security outcomes our clients depend on.
Addressing it requires investment in apprenticeship programmes, clearer career pathways and a concerted effort to make the security engineering profession attractive to young people entering the workforce.
For enterprise security leaders, the implications are worth considering when selecting partners.
An integrator’s ability to attract, train and retain skilled engineers directly affects the quality of service you will receive, both during installation and throughout the lifetime of your systems.
Artificial intelligence in security has generated enormous excitement and some of it is justified.
Video analytics that can distinguish between genuine threats and harmless activity are reducing false alarms significantly.
Intelligent monitoring is catching anomalies that would otherwise go unnoticed during routine surveillance.
AI-powered search is accelerating investigations from days to hours.
But there is also a great deal of noise. Not every AI capability delivers practical value and the gap between a demonstration and reliable real-world performance can be substantial.
The organisations benefiting most from these technologies are those approaching them with clear operational objectives: Reducing false callouts, improving response times or enabling their existing teams to manage larger estates more effectively.
The question to ask is not “does this system have AI?” but “what specific problem does this solve and can you demonstrate it working in an environment similar to ours?”
Finally and perhaps most importantly: Technology is only part of the equation.
The best system in the world delivers limited value if you cannot get support when something goes wrong.
Poor service quality and vendor responsiveness remain among the most common reasons organisations change security providers.
As systems become more complex and more deeply integrated with wider building and IT infrastructure, the importance of having a partner who understands your environment and who answers the phone when you need them only increases.
Enterprise security is not a product you buy once. It is an ongoing relationship. The decisions you make about who you work with matter as much as the decisions you make about what you install.
2026 will bring continued technological advancement and some of it will genuinely improve how we protect people and assets.
But the fundamentals remain unchanged: Reliable systems, effective integration, skilled people to install and maintain them and partners who deliver on their commitments.
Jake Rackham is Joint Group Managing Director of Evolution an employee-owned electronic security and life safety systems integrator.
With over 16 years in the sector, Rackham began his career as an engineer before progressing through technical and leadership roles.
Evolution operates across the UK, Europe and the United States, serving clients in critical infrastructure, data centres, defence, healthcare and corporate enterprise.
Rackham is passionate about developing the next generation of security professionals and maintaining the service-first culture that underpins Evolution’s approach.
This article was originally published in the February edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.
