PX Saves Valuable Time & Money for IT Outsourcing Company

The Client: A local IT outsourcing company that services approx. 50 clients and until now has used VNC as a remote support software. His client lists includes a dozen or so small branch offices, local non-profit organizations and real estate offices, all local small and medium businesses in the same metropolitan city.

His Problems: He needs to cut overhead by reducing travel costs and valuable time. He would also like to eventually expand his client base to towns farther away.

His Customers Needs: When a computer crashes and can’t be fixed using VNC, there is significant down time before he arrives and fixes it. Also, when a client hires someone new and has a new computer, they need to wait for a technician to come to configure it.

Minicom Solution: He bought 50 PX units and preconfigured them in his lab then sent them to each customer. When there is a problem, instead of sending a technician to fix it he instructs the customer with the problem PC to take the PX from its storage place, plug it in and proceeds with his service. In the past, when a client orders a new computer, instead of using precious time to travel and physically configure it, he instructs them to plug in the PX and he is able to set everything up remotely.

Added Benefit: Not only is the PX plug and play – it’s a simple to explain and simple to use solution. It was particularly attractive to this customer because he was able to choose between USB, PS2 or Serial versions. He was able to support each customer with a PX according to their needs.

If you want to see if the PX is the right remote access solution for you – test drive it and other IP products in our online demo right now!

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Related Material:
White Paper – Remote Support Using KVM IP Technology
Case Study – PX with KVM.net for Centralized Management
Podcast – PX for the Managed Service Provider (3 min)
Product Brochure - PX (pdf)

Webcast: The SmartRack 116-116 IP Switch

Title: “The SmartRack 116-116 IP Switch”

Speaker: David Zucker, Director of KVM Business Development.
Duration: 2:10 minutes

The SmartRack KVM switches are compatible with all major operating systems and can control any server’s brand and model, regardless of the server condition and network connectivity, covering the entire spectrum of crash scenarios.

Ideal for those who need both the console and switch together, this combined KVM switch and rack console provides total control.

Want to see more? Visit the Minicom Media Club for a wide selection of archived webinars, webcasts and podcasts.

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Related Material:

White Paper: Remote Support using KVM IP Technology

Online Test Drive: KVM IP Access Demo of all products

Case Study: AGH University in Poland - one universal system with access and control by 3 or more administrators

Support Report: Smart 232 Cascaded with Phantom System

Occasionally I get to work on interesting applications; here is another solution that I would like to share… I had been requested to find a solution for real out-of-band Keyboard/Video/Mouse access from two consoles (that are located in a control room) to multiple racks in the server room.

For this I proposed to use our Smart 232A KVM Switch that will be installed on each rack. The Smart 232A is a two user KVM Switch that allows two users connecting simultaneously to 32 servers. On top of that I daisy-chained the Phantom system with Specter USB over CAT5 cable. This allowed two users sitting in the control room to select which rack they wanted to access and which server within the rack to control.

The connection from the two controlling consoles to the servers is done through the daisy chained CAT5 cable to give real time video & mouse control.

Learn more about the Phantom or Smart 232A systems.

Thanks to Nir Dary, Minicom's Technical Support Manager for this Support Report!

Do you have a technical question about a Minicom product or are you looking for solutions for your IT department? Visit Minicom Support for FAQ's, product updates, user guides and contact details for our expert technicians around the world.
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Related Material:

Product Brochure: Smart 232
Webcast: Smart 216/232 Analog KVM Switches (2 min)
Case Study: Emergency Call Center uses Phantom System

Branch offices need remote KVM access to survive

It is no longer only large companies that have multiple locations. With the increase in globalization more and more small and medium sized businesses have branch offices and satellite locations. These locations may have a server or two that is critical to its business, but each location can’t afford its own IT person. For one IT person to manage distant IT is nearly impossible without KVM IP access.

As part of their normal service routine, servers and computers must be maintained regularly. This includes: updating anti-virus software, spyware, applications, etc., reconfiguring firewalls, installing updates for your O/S and hardware drives, and the list goes on and on. All these tasks can be performed remotely by using Remote KVM Access.

Remote access reduces expensive travel costs for IT staff to remote locations. With oil prices at record levels, the less staff must travel, the better it is for the bottom line.

Remote KVM IP access has become the standard at the enterprise level and now medium and small sized businesses need it in order to survive.

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Related Material:
Webcast: The ABC's of Remote Management (27 minutes)
White Paper: Remote Support using KVM IP Technology
Case Study: 888.com uses global centralized management system
Article: Reducing Travel Costs with Remote Server Access

Restrict Server Room Access to Increase Security

When staff is allowed in the data center, there is really nothing stopping them from plugging a crash cart into a Windows machine or worse, damaging or stealing equipment. By upgrading analog KVM switches with KVM IP gateways, additional security is provided by the ability to relate user names to their designated servers regardless of changes to their port configuration. Your IT staff’s access to servers and devices can be restricted, especially in branch offices where it might be harder to monitor all server room activity. If you don’t want your UNIX administrator to access Windows machines, you can make sure that does not happen.

Almost all KVM IP switches use SSL security; the same tools used by eBay and most ecommerce businesses. By using KVM IP gateways, you can manage and restrict server room access to secure your data center.

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Related Material:
White Paper: Remote Support using KVM IP Technology
Online Test Drive: KVM IP Access Demo of all products

Case Study: AGH, Poland’s second largest University DX System & IP Control

Gartner Report Says IT Spending Decline in '09

One of Gartner’s latest reports says IT spending will be affected by the economy just like everyone else.

The unprecedented decline of the global economy is impacting the IT industry with worldwide IT spending forecast to total $3.2 trillion in 2009, a 3.8 per cent decline from 2008 revenue of nearly $3.4 trillion, according to Gartner, Inc.

Go to Gartner's site to read about it>>

The full report is available with payment, but the highlights will give you a nice overview.

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Related Material:
Minicom's Real Needs Approach - Maximize past and future investments
White Paper: Protect Your IT Investment with KVM IP Management
Webcast: Real Needs™ Value Proposition (22 min)

FREE WEBINAR: Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access

Rackit Technology Corporation and Minicom Advanced Systems invite you to join a webinar presenting cost effective solutions for remote access to data centers, server-rooms and remote/branch offices.

Is the current economic situation delaying your plans to upgrade the data center? Now, more than ever, we need to concentrate on what are your Real Needs:

Remote access? Yes, that's a real need.
Replacing your perfectly good switches? Not so much.

This short webinar will focus on learning how you can give your Data Center's KVM infrastructure a facelift and transform it into a remotely accessible IP system without replacing your legacy KVM switches.

We will be focusing on:

*Why we suggest not throwing out perfectly good KVM switches and serial devices just because you need to upgrade to an IP environment

*How you can save time, money, and training headaches by concentrating on your Real Needs

*What our competitors do not want you to know - how to extend the life of your products.

Space is limited so register for this free webinar today.
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM EST (1 hour)

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Related Material:

White Paper: Real Needs Approach: Protect Your IT Investment with KVM IP Management
Podcast: Real Needs™ Value Proposition
Case Study: Christie Digital - four remote administrators manage 100 servers in its data center

ABC’s of Remote Management

Once upon a time organizations built redundant infrastructures at remote sites to ensure stability of their IT infrastructure. Now, many organizations turn to IP-based remote management technologies which offer a more cost-efficient centralized IT management solution. These solutions allow remote access to computers/servers to conduct maintenance, service faulty devices or simply reboot frozen operating systems. Today remote server management has become a standard for enterprise class data centers.

More and more, the ability to access servers from outside the server room or office has become increasingly important to small and medium size organizations. Due to shrinking IT staffs and budgets, it is more crucial for these customers to have KVM IP access to their infrastructures.

Why has remote KVM IP access become the standard at the enterprise level and why is it so important to medium and small sized businesses?

To find out watch our latest Webcast “The ABC’s of Remote Management” (Length - 27 minutes)

Speaker: David Zucker, Director of KVM Business Development, Minicom

Talking points:
What is remote management?
The value of KVM Switches
Why use IP KVM?
The Benefits of Real NeedsTM

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Related Material:

White Paper: “Protect Your IT investment with KVM IP Management”
Case Study: AGH University in Poland - one universal system with access and control by 3 or more administrators
Article: “Reducing Travel Costs with Remote Server Access”