Backed by independent research from Memoori, this whitepaper reveals the hidden operational, financial, and risk costs of traditional access control—and why they add up to more than organizations expect.
About the Research
This whitepaper is based on independent research conducted by Memoori, a leading building security industry analyst firm. The analysis combines stakeholder interviews and industry data to model the full lifecycle cost of on-premise, cloud, and managed service access control across U.S. commercial real estate and multifamily sectors.
Based on real U.S. commercial access control scenarios, the research found:
The difference isn’t the hardware. It’s who carries the operational burden.
Traditional access control looks simple:
Buy the hardware
Hire an integrator
Manage it yourself
It looks simple on paper. But over time, the hidden costs compound — quietly and expensively.
But what rarely gets budgeted?
In many buildings, these hidden costs exceed the original system price. The real question isn’t which system is cheaper.
Traditional On-Prem
High upfront CAPEX
Heavy IT and admin burden
Cost spikes at refresh and end-of-life
Owner absorbs risk, downtime, and complexity
Cloud-Only
Lower initial infrastructure
Subscription creep over time
Owner still manages hardware, vendors, and incidents
Managed Services (MSP/MSSP)
One predictable fee
Installation, operations, monitoring, maintenance included
Fewer surprises, fewer spikes, less risk
Complexity absorbed by the provider — not your team
If you oversee access control across multiple doors, buildings, or portfolios, this is for you.
You’ll learn:
Clear insight. Real data. Better decisions.
Your property, portfolio, and operations are unique — which means your true security costs are too. Talk with a security expert from Kastle to uncover hidden expenses, reduce operational burden, and explore a smarter cost model tailored to your property.
