KVM over IP – the IT manager’s life insurance

It’s a known saying that your customers are the best advocates of your solutions and products. When that happens, your chances of closing the deal rise dramatically. In a recent sales meeting with a prospect customer one of our sales managers, Moti, experienced just that!

The customer is fortune 1000 company in the insurance industry that is consolidating its three legacy data centers into a new “lights out” data center, looking to streamline operational costs, increase efficiency and productivity of their IT staff and of course provide better service to their on-line customers.

Moti started off the meeting presenting the many benefits of an KVM over IP switch, emphasizing in particular on the critical aspect of out-of-band access - that while day by day maintenance will be done using applications like RDP, VNC or SSH (to name just a few), when disaster hits once in a blue moon, can be even once a year, in the form of an OS crash (blue screen of death ring a bell?) THEN, the ONLY means of accessing the server’s BIOS and attempting a fix is through the KVM over IP switch…

At this point in the meeting the customer politely intervened saying something like "Moti, you don’t have to sell us on this, we are in the insurance business…we sell products that in some cases are never used (!) And in other cases are used only once…but still, the mere thought of not having an insurance for when disaster happens once in a lifetime is so horrifying that everyone buys them”

Now, take out the word “insurance” from the quote above and replace it with “KVM over IP switch” and you have an elevator pitch for convincing your CFO why you need the most reliable and secure KVM over IP solution, whether you are a fortune 100 enterprise or a doctor’s clinic.

Make IT smile!

So, you want to access your data centers remotely, butyou have a ton of servers from different brandsand they all have different control panels & passwords?


.....Now that you have many servers, you're IT managers are going "bananas" trying to keep everything under control!

Well, what can you do?Say hello to AccessIT®!!!

Why wait? schedule a live demo now >>

Why Remote Access Management? Security and Efficiency

The benefits of remote server access

Post by Eran Kessel (VP Marketing & Products) - Years ago, the idea of operating and maintaining data centers remotely, or with “lights out” in the server room, seemed radical. Now it’s standard procedure. Why? Because of three compelling advantages:

1. Increased data security—with remote access, the data center can be secured from unwanted visitors.

2. Improved operational efficiency—with remote access, your IT staff can fix problems from their computer screen—they don’t have to be onsite. Remote access means doing more with less.

3. Better cooling/power efficiency—one of the major causes of cooling inefficiency is service staff who open doors and wander around. With remote access, server rooms are sealed tight.

Remote Access Management™: maximizing the benefits, minimizing the risks
Despite the above, many companies are not maximizing their benefits. Worse, they may have actually created new security risks. This comes from the fact that remote server access tools have been adopted gradually, one at a time, often supplied by the manufacturers of the data center’s existing equipment. To maximize the benefits of remote server access, while minimizing the risks, companies need a strategy and a dedicated software solution for Remote Access Management.

What are the new security risks?
A critical security risk lies in access management: the vast majority of organizations store their passwords, user names, IP addresses, server names and more in a single spreadsheet or homegrown database. This provides IT personnel with almost unrestricted access to security-critical data, even data that has no relevance to their tasks. Windows admins can see how to access Unix machines, network admins can see how to access servers etc. There is no benefit to this, and considerable security risk. All an employee, intern or consultant needs to do is download the spreadsheet to a flash drive, and they can carry a corporation’s secrets out of the building.

The solution: task-appropriate access
To improve corporate security, a Remote Access Management solution should limit servers and IT tools to task-appropriate access, e.g. Windows admins should be able to access Windows servers only. An admin that only require RDP access should not have access to power and KVM.

Measuring operational efficiency: resolving critical issues faster
When a server goes down, resolution speed is what matters. With a spreadsheet or custom database, speed is a problem: first, the IT admin is notified of the issue. Then they have to open the spreadsheet, locate the name of the server, and copy and paste its IP address and password and username info. Dozens of mouse clicks and many minutes can pass before a device can be found. If, for example, an attempted RDP solution fails, the operator may try a KVM fix, and the copy and paste process begins again.

Over a typical shift, the wasted minutes can add up to wasted hours of valuable work time.

The solution: a minimum 6x faster server access and resolution
Minicom compared the mouse-clicks required to access a server with RDP and a spreadsheet, vs RDP and our AccessIT dashboard.
The spreadsheet took 37 clicks simply to access a server. AccessIT software cut the number of clicks to six. And that was a best-case situation. For each service attempt—KVM, iLO, PDU—the number of clicks, and the server downtime—jumps drastically.

A proven solution: AccessIT® from Minicom
AccessIT from Minicom was designed from the ground up to meet IT managers’ mission-critical requirements for secure web-based, centralized remote access management.

AccessIT provides fast, secure, trouble-free access to every aspect of a data center’s infrastructure, and streamlines access to remote access tools such as RDP and KVM. It supports all major manufacturers of KVM switches, PDUs and console servers, and supports the industry’s leading in-band and out-of-band remote access services, including RDP, VNC, VMWare, SSH, Telnet, HP iLO, KVM IP, and any proprietary web-based or customized applications.

For complete details, and to read how major customers have deployed Minicom solutions,

visit www.minicom.com

Schedule a live demonstartion now >>

New Podcast: The Value of KVM in ILO Enviroments

From HP website: “HP remote management gives you virtual presence, i.e. complete control as if you were in front of servers in datacenters or remote sites.”

Some IT managers believe HP iLO replaces the need for KVM.

We think differently. Learn why this is not the case in our latest Podcast: The Value of KVM in ILO Environments

Speaker: David Zucker, Director of KVM Business Development
Duration: 4:07 minutes
*****

Related Material:

• White Paper: Remote KVM access - Planning your Remote KVM strategy
• Case Study: AGH (DX System & IP Control) Polish University
• Featured Product: KVM.net II - Centralized Access Management Solution
  
  
  
  

Support Report: Managing the Access to Console Servers on the Port Level

In a recent project I was involved with, the customer had an interesting request… His company has multiple consoles servers which allows remotely secured access to their serial devices across their network.

(Photo: Serial Switch)

Their IT manager often allows individual users remote access to selected ports of these serial console servers. Until now, this action required him to log into the configuration settings of each console servers and manage its access individually.

With the KVM.net II remote access service open architecture, he can now configure the access permission to a remote serial device behind the console server for each individual port. In other words, he can set up user "A" with permission to access port 1 & 3 of console server one, and port 5 & 8 of console server two at the same time.

(Photo: KVM.net II screenshot - Access Service open architecture - click to enlarge)

From now on all users will connect to one IP address and according to their log-in information they will see a list of all remote managed serial devices they have permission to connect with. With the KVM.net II, the user just points and clicks to get seamless access…

*********

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.

Minicom Article: KVM IP Management for Today’s IT Budget

Add-On Technology that Maximizes Your IT Installed Base

By Kenneth Dukofsky, Marketing Communications Manager of Minicom Advanced Systems

The numerous benefits of remote KVM IP access and management have made them the new must have technologies for IT managers. With KVM IP, companies can perform remote maintenance, increase response times, reduce downtime, slash travel costs and increase security. Unfortunately many remote access and management solutions are too costly for SMB’s. Much of their high costs derive from the contemporary “Rip and Replace” approach.

With over 60% of KVM switches in server rooms analog-based, IT administrators have a heavy investment in their current KVM systems. But when it comes to adding KVM IP access, most KVM manufacturers advocate replacing everything. In order to add KVM IP access to your server environment these companies make you completely remove your perfectly functioning analog KVM switches and replace them with their KVM switches with built-in IP technology. This makes their solutions very costly as you are paying for the KVM switch component twice, once for the analog KVM switch that you are throwing away and once for the new one.

An alternative approach allows companies to upgrade their existing analog switches; transforming them into IP enabled KVM switches. This is achieved by simply adding a technology layer on top of the legacy KVM systems, safeguarding the company investment. This cost effective solution, where you buy only what you need, costs less than half the price of competing systems. This approach saves time and money without sacrificing functionality providing a cost effective solution to KVM IP access. Minicom Advanced Systems calls this the Real Needs ™ approach.

The Real Needs approach is an affordable way to add KVM IP access that makes more sense for the end user. All companies really need to remotely control IT devices is a KVM IP gateway and a management system that is third party KVM switch compatible. There is simply no need to replace analog KVM switches. With the Real Needs approach companies upgrade to IP access and management for half the price of conventional methods saving tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

The Real Needs approach also slashes installation costs. IT managers have spent months building the perfect server racks and years laying wires all over their building. The thought of ripping up thousands of meters/feet of wire and laying brand new ones is a nightmare. Instead of destroying everything they have built up over the years and starting all over from zero, they can keep everything in place. With the Real Needs approach they simply add an additional technology layer on top of the existing systems. Not only do IT managers save themselves many hours of work, they also eliminate critical downtime for their company in the process.

Click here to read more about add-on technology that maximizes your IT installed base in Minicom’s new white paper
“KVM IP Management for Today’s IT Budget”.


Please visit our website for free informative resources such as white papers, case studies, podcasts and webinars on the subjects of KVM and Digital Signage.

The writer, Kenneth Dukofsky, is the Marketing Communications Manager of Minicom Advanced Systems. Minicom manufactures KVM server and computer management solutions that facilitate the control of the enterprise and corporate IT environments. Additionally, Minicom is an innovative manufacturer of distribution and extension solutions that provide the Digital Signage Last Mile™ player-to-screens stage of connectivity for Digital Signage systems. Minicom is an Intel Capital portfolio company and was named a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company. Founded in 1988 Minicom has an international presence in over 70 countries, with headquarters in Israel and regional offices in North America and Europe.

Nothing But Net

The People and Computer (IT Infrastructure) Conference was held in Tel Aviv in front on an audience of 200 people last week.

As Minicom headquarters are in Jerusalem, we sent our local sales reps and support team to participate. In addition to enjoying the chocolate filled croissants for coffee breaks and a nice buffet lunch, the Minicom team delivered a live demo of our latest product, the Centralized Access & Management Solution for IT Managers - KVM.net® II. It was very well received and got the attention of all there. If you would also like a demo of the KVM.net® II you can arrange one here.

Some more photos from the event...

more photos here