Across industries, 2025 has become a pivotal year for multi-site security. Organizations are navigating more distributed operations, rising cost pressures, increased expectations for remote oversight, and rapid advances in security technology. From retail chains and logistics hubs to manufacturing and global data centers, leaders are asking the same question: how can we manage risk consistently and efficiently across locations?
Industry perspectives, also reflected in recent SIA and ASIS security trend analyses, suggests a movement toward more connected, technology-enabled security models. As organizations grow across regions and face more complex risks, integrated security programs that blend cloud-based platforms, data insights, and coordinated on-site, mobile, and remote guarding are becoming the approach for helping maintain consistency and scalability across all locations.
This blog breaks down the five trends shaping multi-site security in 2025 and what they mean for organizations preparing for 2026 and beyond.
Why multi-site security is different in 2025
Today’s multi-site portfolios, whether corporate campuses, housing communities, data centers, retail networks, or industrial environments, require consistent visibility, unified processes, and measurable performance across locations. Traditional approaches where each site uses a different vendor, system, or reporting method, often result in inefficiencies, inconsistent service levels, and a lack of coordinated oversight.
Recent reports note a shift toward integrated or hybrid security models. Organizations are looking for easier vendor processes, standardized procedures, and security partners who can help deliver unified services across regions. This pressure is driving the need for rapid consolidation and the adoption of hybrid guarding, automation, and centralized operations.
Top trends shaping multi-site security in 2025
Trend 1: Hybrid guarding: balancing human presence and remote capabilities
Hybrid guarding blends on-site officers with remote video monitoring, analytics, mobile patrols, and centralized intervention capabilities. This model has increasingly become the preferred approach today.
For multi-site organizations, hybrid guarding offers several advantages:
- 24/7 real-time oversight across multiple locations
- Improved response times through coordinated remote and on-site operations
- Cost-efficiency without sacrificing physical presence
- Greater scalability, especially during periods of staffing shortages
Security partners can now operate advanced remote operations centers that support on-site teams, verify alarms, monitor multiple properties simultaneously, and have incident responses with intelligence. As technology only gets better, and labor markets remain tight, integrated guarding can be expected to become the default security model in the future.
Tommy Zarna, Mobile Region President, highlights that “clients don’t always need more guards, they need the right mix of people and technology that adjusts as risk changes,” while also noting that “integration is about alignment: technology, onsite resources, and remote operations all working the same way across every site.”
Trend 2: Cloud, AI, and analytics powering multi-site visibility
Cloud-based platforms are transforming the way security teams manage multi-site environments. Organizations are increasingly consolidating security data. Video, access control, alarms, and data can be integrated into unified dashboards that help provide real-time insights across all properties.
AI is driving the biggest step forward in visibility, especially for multi-site operations. AI-enabled capabilities now include:
- Automated incident and anomaly detection
- Predictive maintenance for cameras and infrastructure
- Pattern recognition across multiple facilities
- Automated alarm verification to help reduce false positives
These capabilities help security teams shift from reactive monitoring to proactive decision-making. Cloud adoption also allows consistent reporting across sites, standardized processes, and instant data access for both local teams and centralized operations centers. Together, these approaches help see that field officers, remote teams, and clients all have actionable insights, improving coordination and response across multi-site programs.
Across Securitas USA’s discussions on AI, a consistent theme emerges that technology can accelerate awareness, but people are still essential for context and judgment. As Connor Nash, Digital Programs Manager, notes, “AI is about augmentation… only a person can assess the intent behind the action,” highlighting why human oversight remains central to decision-making. He also emphasizes that while AI may be “superhuman at pattern recognition,” it still has “glaring weaknesses in contexts that require nuance and judgment.”
Lastly, the long-promised “easy button” in security doesn’t exist. Effective protection comes from “a strategic blend of technology, irreplaceable human expertise, and continuous adaptation.” Together, these points underscore that even the most advanced multi-site platforms are most effective when paired with skilled professionals who can interpret, act, and establish trust.
Trend 3: Workforce technology to empower security teams
Security teams operating across multiple locations are relying more on workforce technology to help improve consistency, retention, and decision-making. This workforce technology is emerging as a major differentiator in multi-site security, especially as providers navigate high turnover and labor shortages. Turnover remains the top challenge for guard forces, while many organizations still underuse automation and AI, leaving gaps in communication and consistency across locations.
There is a need for better tools that support frontline teams.
In response, companies are shifting to platforms that streamline daily tasks, communication, and reporting. Recent studies point to AI-enabled workforce management can improve task visibility and employee satisfaction. Other industry insights highlights that mobile devices have become primary work tools across many industries. For multi-site environments, these tools help officers stay aligned, reduce administrative burdens, and give leaders a clearer picture of performance across locations.
Workforce apps are also reshaping the employee and client experience, an area where Securitas USA continues to invest.
Trend 4: centralized operations: the new nerve center for multi-site security
Centralized monitoring through a centralized operations center has become a cornerstone of modern multi-site programs. The ASIS 2025 Security Trends Report and Securitas’s own SOC model highlight how organizations consolidate video, alarms, analytics, and field reporting into a single command environment.
A centralized SOC enables:
- Unified response protocols for all locations
- Real-time decision-making informed by AI-driven analytics
- Better coordination between remote operators and on-site officers
- Greater consistency in reporting, compliance, and documentation
Today, operation centers are evolving from monitoring hubs to strategic intelligence centers. They not only respond to incidents, but they anticipate them, analyze them, and coordinate resources across wide geographic areas. Unifying operations helps improve response times, standardize service levels, and provide a single source for complex, multi-site environments.
Trend 5: data center security: protecting the physical backbone of the digital world
As data centers grow in scale and complexity, operators are shifting toward globally consistent security models that can maintain continuity and reliability from site to site.
Milton Plet, Senior Vice President of Global Clients, has emphasized that rising demand, labor pressures, and rapidly growing site complexity are pushing operators to blend specialized security officers with advanced digital tools. Across many regions, a single highly trained officer, supported by AI-driven video analytics, multi-layer access control, and intelligent monitoring, can now perform work that once required multiple personnel.
This is driving a new era of consistency: unified technology platforms, standardized operating procedures, and coordinated training programs that scale from one site to hundreds. As data centers become more interconnected, sustainability goals, predictive analytics, and early-stage co-creation with security partners are helping organizations stay resilient and compliant.
“Data center growth isn’t slowing down, so security can’t either. Scalability begins with standardization across every location,” and that “AI doesn’t replace the human element; it gives teams the insight they need before something becomes a problem.”
The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2025 reinforces this direction. Staffing, operational continuity, and physical security remain top global concerns, making integrated, hybrid solutions essential.
Preparing multi-site security for 2026 and beyond
Multi-site organizations are entering a new era of integrated security, one where cloud platforms, hybrid guarding, workforce technology, and centralized operations work together to help deliver consistent, intelligent protection across every location.
Backed by emerging trends and evolving client expectations, Securitas USA is helping organizations build future-ready programs that are scalable, efficient, and deeply connected.
