As for the gap between physical and IT security cultures, changes in management — such as establishing a CSO position with global authority — can help. At the City of Vancouver’s offices, Tyson instituted a program to train security guards about IT security, and then assigned them to look in cubes for unsecured laptops, passwords on post-it notes, and unauthorized wireless access points.

“IT security doesn’t have the feet to get out to all those desktops. So instead of just rattling doors, we’ve got [security guards] looking for all the risks in the environment,” Tyson says.

On the IT side, experts say that enterprises should focus convergence efforts on areas with a big payoff, such as data encryption, door access, and branch office security — and look for ways to realize convergence without having to rip out existing infrastructure or disrupt existing systems and processes.

As an example, Imprivata’s OneSign product, which works with products by Tyco, Linell, and S2, integrates with legacy access card readers, but adds the ability to tie in door access with logical access to the LAN in the office, or through a VPN system, Imprivata’s Ting says. That means companies can leverage the physical access system they already have as a second factor, instead of investing in an entirely new second factor token or secure ID, he says.

Tyco plans to disclose integration with “a leading IT security vendor” when it unveils its new C-CURE 9000 platform in the first quarter of this year, whereas integration with platforms like IBM’s Tivoli are “coming soon,” Boriskin says. And Cisco is working on integrating its NAC network admission control technology with IBM’s Smart Security System, says Steve Cohen, director of marketing at Cisco’s Security Technology Group.

Although the worlds of physical and IT security are beginning to gravitate together, true convergence is still a ways off.

“The adoption curve is never as fast as people think it’s going to be, except, maybe for the iPod,” says ArcSight’s Contos.

The capability to move incrementally toward convergence, however, may be the best indication that it will eventually happen, says Fehl.

“People have talked about convergence forever, but it hasn’t come about. It was always a big leap, and it was expensive and peoples’ jobs were on the line,” Fehl says. “Now you can take baby steps. Be flexible. Change direction and evaluate.”