There are many hot new trends in Information Technology, Service-oriented architecture is just one current flavor.  But behind these trends is a ground swell of change where existing businesses must look to survive.  One area that has become extremely turbulent is the convergence of information technology security and physical security.  There are several factors driving this convergence - compliance with laws, legal risk mitigation, protection of business assets,

In many businesses there are two seperate functional areas that perform overlapping services but have two different mindsets.

The IT security is about protecting and securing the data.  They use passwords, firewalls, encryption, detection software and hardware to control data use and disclosure.  A number of laws have been enacted over the past 5 years that has placed the protection of customer data in the relm of compliance.