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

Stay Cool

Here is a great article about how to keep the data center cool for summer. It provides 11 tips and is definitely worth reading.

Location Location

Even when you are putting a data center in the middle of nowhere there are factors to consider. Take this proposed data center in Canberra, Australia as an example. It was unsuitable due to the presence of Aboriginal artefacts, the land was too small, it low-lying under a flight path and it was too close to a highway.
When it comes to data center location its not just a matter of having the space - the environment also has to be conducive. But given that the data center may be in the middle of nowhere, remote access, management and control takes on even more relevance.

KVM.net® II webinar

On Tuesday August 5, 2008 (2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT) there will be a special introductory webinar dedicated to the KVM.net® II. KVM.net II is a centralized management solution for access to servers, virtual servers, blade consoles and network devices in the server room and data center environments. It consolidates management of access to servers and network devices, unifying administration of targets and users across geographic locations to distributed branch offices. In addition to KVM access management, the KVM.net II provides a powerful Access Services feature that supports a wide range of remote access technologies including Serial, RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, VMware, HP ILO and Web Services. The webinar will focus on what's unique about KVM.net II as well as what the new Access Services feature is?
For those in the industry this is a must-be event so register now to avoid missing out.

Being Green

ATEN has come up with a bunch of Green IT tips and suggestions for network administrators.
These are the tips:
Go IT Remotely
Cut the Clutter and Reduce Power Consumption
Check out the Most Environmentally Friendly KVMs
Going Green Starts on the Factory Floor
They are all excellent ones and great start for going green.

Containment

This article discusses how Hewlett-Packard is the latest company to offer container-based data centers. They join the likes of Sun Microsystems, Rackable Systems and IBM in doing so.

According to the article, HP's Performance Optimized Data Center, or POD will consist of 22 taller-than-average 50U racks that can support up to 3,500 compute nodes, or 12,000 large form-factor hard drives. The servers will be accessible from the front of the rack and cooled with HP modular cooling system components using chilled water HP will also offer a 20-foot container option for smaller environments.
Not all reaction to them has been rosy with Chuck Goolsbee of Digital Forest saying that they shouldn't be considered a long-term solution. Will be interesting to see how the market reacts to them.

Centralizing Your IT Department

Stumbled onto this interesting video about centralizing your IT department. Jason Hiner from Tech Republic is the one doing the talking and gives five reason why doing so is a good idea. Check it out.

German Webinar Today

For all those German speakers out there - don't forget that there is a German webinar today
2-3pm CEST (GMT+2).
The topic is the KVM.net® II. The KVM.net® II is a centralized management solution for access to servers, virtual servers, blade consoles and network devices in the server room and data center environments. It consolidates management of access to servers and network devices, unifying administration of targets and users across geographic locations to distributed branch offices.In addition to KVM access management, the KVM.net® II provides a powerful Access Services feature that supports a wide range of remote access technologies including Serial, RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, VMware, HP ILO and Web Services.

Criminal Behaviour

This report from England is of another data center being hit by thieves. Websites such as that of the Financial Times were hit and down until the back-up servers could be triggered. The snowball affect of these actions is massive. The websites go down and the hundreds of thousands who rely on these websites are in turn affected. Simply after scrap metal, these criminals have no idea about the consequences of their actions. It's not like the world is being brought to its knees like in Die Hard 4.0 but data center security is becoming an increasingly important issue.

The Minicom Interview

This week the Minicom Interview speaks to Simon Perry from Quocirca. Simon is Principal Associate Analyst to Quocirca. He specialises in environmental sustainability issues and their implications to business models. His particular interest is the role that IT can play in supporting transformational business society and new ways of working


Minicom Blog: Hi Simon, thanks for joining us.
Simon Perry: My pleasure.

MB: What do you see as the current data center trends?
SP: Energy efficiency regardless of the hardware or software architecture in the data center. The main concern is how much energy is it consuming? Then there are the issues of sustainability, cost and climate control.

MB: Electricity usage is a big issue isn’t it?
SP: Yes. Back three years ago it was about the physical placement of the racks in the room but now people are thinking about an efficient approach to electricity consumption. For instance, how much will be needed to cool the room.

MB: What are the other key data center issues?
SP: Virtualization as well as the utilization of floor space. And with the real estate market as it is people want to maximize every square foot of space they have. To do so the answer is to go up vertically. Cable clutter is another major concern as it blocks cooling and create hotspots. But all of these issues are interconnected.

MB: Speaking of real estate, appears to be many new data centers opening up in remote locations.
SP: That’s as labor is cheaper there, the cost of the property is cheaper and there is actually more electricity available there.

MB: With the technology, won’t things get smaller?
SP: Miniaturization will increase floor efficiency but the energy density per floor space will go up as will heat density. Even though the technology sees the size of devices decreasing they use as electricity as they did 20 years ago. The demands for processing

MB: Been a pleasure speaking to you Simon.
SP: Likewise

All the Way to the Top

People may think of data centers as something which is very niche and largely irrelevant but as this article shows they are being discussed on the floor of the house. If it's going all the way up to the Governor's office that must mean something.

Blog You Should Know About

I found this excellent blog called IT Management and Cloud Blog

It's written by John Willis who writes very well. He writes a fair bit on cloud computing which is a subject which doesn't get enough exposure.
Keep an eye on it

Guten Tag

For anyone who is interested we have a German webinar coming up. The topic is the KVM.net® II.
The KVM.net® II is a centralized management solution for access to servers, virtual servers, blade consoles and network devices in the server room and data center environments. It consolidates management of access to servers and network devices, unifying administration of targets and users across geographic locations to distributed branch offices.In addition to KVM access management, the KVM.net® II provides a powerful Access Services feature that supports a wide range of remote access technologies including Serial, RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, VMware, HP ILO and Web Services.
The webinar will be taking place next Monday July 14 from 2-3 CEST (GMT+2)
Bis Dann!

Data Centre Efficiency

Here is an interesting article posted on vnunet.com by Simon Perry. Perry works at Quocirca as a sustainability analyst. He makes some very good points one of which is:
Business urgently requires a standardised and regulated way of calculating emissions. Sustainability efforts urgently require those measurements to deliver transparency through regular reporting of performance.
The environment isn't an issue which is going to go away and must be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Minicom Media Club

There is a new section on our website called the Minicom Media Club and it is devoted to all things multimedia and audio-visual.

There will be webinars, podcasts and all manner of things multimedia devoted to KVM Technology. Enjoy!

Future of the Data Center

Here is an interesting article from Forbes.com looking at the future of the data center. It is an interview with Doug Harr who is CIO of Ingres. Doug says some interesting things about data centers.

Real Needs Webinar Take Two

For those of your who missed it or heard about it and wanted to be a part of it - the Real Needs™ webinar will be happening again today. A few spaces are still available and you can register here.
It's happening at 11am Eastern Time. See you there!

Stamp of Approval

In the latest edition of the German Network Computing magazine, they tested the Smart 116 IP in a small-medium size business environment: a local user and a remote user (100m distant) operating 4 PS/2 servers (windows 2003 and linux based), connected to a 100 mbit/s-switch.



Only eight manufacturers sent a solution for this scenario: Aten , Avocent, Belkin, Raritan, Daxten, D-link, Gutermann & Drunk and Lindy. The first four companies (and Minicom) used UTP cable solutions, and the rest, KVM cable. The test concluded that UTP is better because it is easier to find at resellers, it doesn’t need a special adapter and it goes longer distances.

Test result: On a scale of 0-5, the Smart 116IP got 4. This was the same as the Avocent AutoView3100 solution. Top marks went to the Lindy KVM-Switch U8-Modular (using a KVM extender instead of KVM IP) which got 4.68 points. The positive points of the Smart 116IP were the security functions and the KVM.net.

MultiMedia

SearchDataCenter.Com has a number of different webcasts, podcasts and videocasts which are defintely worth having a look at. They cover a wide range of topics such as data center efficiency and protecting your virtual environment.

Cisco 3.0

Did you see the interesting announcements about the vision Cisco has for their data centers.

Real Needs™ Webinar Today

We are going to be having a webinar today at 2pm EDT titled:
Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access.

If there are still spaces available you can reserve your place here.

In today's unstable economy, many companies are slashing their IT budgets leaving little or no money for Data Center technology upgrades. Organizations needs Remote Access to increase efficiency and reduce those late night trips to the office.
Thanks to the webinar you can learn 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.

Best of all, you can accomplish this upgrade at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing your Real Needs. Not only will you be paying less by just adding on, it is the greener way to do it.

The webinar will focus 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 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 lives of your products.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees - Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees - Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

IBM's Green Data Center

Yesterday we posted about the opening of IBM's new green data center. Now see a short clip about it. Take a look - it's well worth watching.

Greenier

There is news today that IBM just opened its Greenest Data Center in North America. IBM is serious about its committment to being green and it would be great if a lot of companies followed suit.

Real Needs Webinar

We are going to be having a webinar on June 25 2pm EDT titled: Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access.

Space is limited so reserve your place here to avoid missing out.

In today's unstable economy, many companies are slashing their IT budgets leaving little or no money for Data Center technology upgrades. Organizations needs Remote Access to increase efficiency and reduce those late night trips to the office.
Thanks to the webinar you can learn 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.

Best of all, you can accomplish this upgrade at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing your Real Needs. Not only will you be paying less by just adding on, it is the greener way to do it.

The webinar will focus 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 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 lives of your products.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees - Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees - Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Real Needs

Today we launched the KVM.net® II centralized remote access system. It empowers IT administrators to remotely access all their distributed IT assets such as KVM, serial, power and network devices via a single IP address.

Today’s IT departments must work with multiple interfaces, user names and passwords. KVM.net® II radically simplifies life for these IT managers by providing centralized, unified secure access to all their globally distributed services and network devices via a single click of a link on the portal.

KVM.net® II’s powerful Access Services™ feature supports a wide range of remote access technologies including KVM, Serial, RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, VMware, HP ILO and web services.
IT managers are excited about the auto login feature that bypasses the login pages of the predefined access services providing a seamless expedited access experience.

Minicom designed an intuitive graphical user interface that makes configuration so simple; the entire system can be learned in a day. Minicom has also responded to the budgetary restrictions on IT departments by offering a unique Real Needs™ approach. As the only centralized remote access system to offer 3rd party switch support, KVM.net® II rejuvenates your existing KVM infrastructure.

With Minicom’s unique Real Needs™ approach you simply add a technology layer on top of your analog KVM switches, safeguarding your investment and maximizing ROI. This cost-effective solution, where you buy only what you need, costs less than half the price of competing systems. It also provides the market’s most environmentally friendly solution, as it “recycles” your existing KVM infrastructure. KVM.net® II’s open architecture even keeps your future options open, by allowing you to add the equipment that best suits you when the need arises.

Bank of America Doubles Up

Bank of America is planning a $90 million expansion to its data center in Kansas City. According to the proposal, the data center would be 140,000 square feet on two levels. Expect to see and hear more data center news about banks.

The Data Center Journal

Not sure if you know about this but the Data Center Journal is a fantastic resource.

It has oodles of information about data centers such as White Papers devoted to data centers, a data center glossary and a data center forum.
Keep an eye on it.

Going Green

IBM is launching an expanded line of data centers that use a modular design to significantly reduce cut energy consumption in half. According to experts, data centers account for about 2 percent of global energy consumption.

The IBM Way

Forbes.com has an interesting interview with Bernard Meyerson, chief technologist for IBM's systems and technology group. He makes some good points on ways to boost performance in a data center.

Olympic Data Center

Would you like to see something impressive? How about the Data Center which will be used for the Beijing Olympics?

Infocomm 2008

Infocomm 2008 is now just a few weeks away. Should be a fantastic couple of days. Check back here for everything you need to know about Infocomm 08.

Being Green Saving Green

Here is an interesting article about turning your data center being green. Reality doesn't always mirror want people want. The surveys reveal that nearly 75 percent said green computing was “at least somewhat of a priority,” but only 44 percent said they had any specific plans in place.
And as Symantec’s 2007 Green Data Center Report found - only one in seven data center managers either started or had begun to lay plans to have a green data center.
It's not easy to turn everything upside in the pursuit of being green but the rewards are well worth it. The significant cost savings alone!

Lonely Planet

There are more articles speaking about the fire at the Planet Data Center. ComputerWorld and Mashable both put in their two cents worth.

Fire Up

Fires seem to be in the news first with Universal Studios and with The Planet. They have six large data centers in Texas, one of which had a fire. Apparently the damage wasn't to the servers but causing the power to go out. You can follow the play by play on The Planet's Forum. The poor people who now have no internet are probably going out of their mind. We've growned so used to having 24/7 access that as soon as it goes down we feel at a loose end.

Doing It Like Google

Here is an interesting article about Google and its data centers. As you can imagine these data centers are mission critical and processing billions of queries every day.
Jeff Dean say something which is absolutely spot on: "Our view is it's better to have twice as much hardware that's not as reliable than half as much that's more reliable," Dean said. "You have to provide reliability on a software level. If you're running 10,000 machines, something is going to die every day."

Data Center Links

If you don't read John Rath's fantastic Data Center Links do yourself a favor, add it to your favorites and do so.


A great round up of data center news.

Mission to Mars

The Mars Probe Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet yesterday. I was wondering how NASA can control a device on another planet. I work for a company called Minicom that manufactures KVM over IP technology solutions.
We have the ability to access and control the KVM of a server remotely from anywhere in the world. It looks like companies will need to have KVM access and control even on other planets. I was wondering what NASA would do if the probes computer OS crashes? Our KVM can even access a down computer. Do they have a remote KVM way of going to the Bios of the probe to repair it? What if the Probe OS freezes? Can they cut the power to power it down and then add power to restart it? If they don’t they should talk to us about our PowerOnCable solution that can do that via RS-232.

Does NASA have a management system to control a few probes from one central IP address or does the IT department have to remember and re-enter all the passwords and usernames all the time? Minicom Advanced Systems just created a management system called KVM.net II that can access all servers, serial and network devices via a single IP address from anywhere in the solar system, including targets like video cameras and environmental monitoring devices. We even have IP gateways such as the PX IP Gateway that is ideal for non-blocking 1-to-1 remote access directly to mission critical devices, such as the probe. The PX includes virtual media, power control and absolute mouse synchronization. With our Customized Access Services NASA can create their own customized service using any application, URL, IP address or login method they want. I was thinking that with all of this technology we have become an advanced species to some far off planet. We have become the UFO’s.
Doesn’t that feel good?

Greening IT Up

GlassHouse Technologies has put out a white paper called Five Key Strategies for a Greener Data Center which is an interesting read.

They list five areas where there are potential cost savings:
1. Consume Intelligently
2. Consolidate Your Systems
3. Manage Storage Resources More Efficiently
4. Invest in a Greener Infrastructure
5. Consolidate Your Data Center Footprint

Well worthwhile reading the whole thing though.

Nice Data Center Website

While surfing the net, I found a fantastic website in regard to data center design and solutions. The company is called PTS Data Center Solutions and they provide data center design. They even have their own blog.
I really like this picture which I found on their website:

Compression

Interesting article here about how compression can reduce data center energy use by up to 95% The comments don't seem to be so complementary though.

IBM Sets Sail For The Enterprise

Did you see the news about IBM? They are constructing huge data centers aimed at being data archives. The article doesn't mention remote access and control but would be interesting to know what sort they are planning to have?

Power of Knowledge

Have you see the Data Center Knowledge blog? It's an excellent resource for those wanting to be kept up to date about Data Centers.
They've been around for three years and have been providing daily news and analysis about the data center industry ever since. Well worthwhile checking out.

Greening

Continuing on the green theme we had yesterday, Blade Watch reports on a survey which concluded that there was a lack of industry standards for green datacenters. The thing about green data centers is they tend to go hand in hand with solutions which are mindful of the bottom line. For instance you want solutions that preserve your investment. Every time you move forward you don't want to have to start from scratch. That isn't progress - that's reinventing the wheel.

Green Data Centers - Literally!

Interesting post on the storage blog where its reported that planting vegetation on a roof makes it significantly cooler.
Great idea but I can't see IT managers standing out there with a watering can.

Firing Back

The other day we posted about Microsoft's plan to fill its Chicago data center with servers housed in 40-foot shipping containers. To his credit, Michael Manos, Director of Data Center Services for Microsoft came back with Microsoft's side of the story. He posted his comments on his blog and they are definitely worth reading if not for his sense of humor alone.

Real Needs

When budgets are shrinking, its important to spend just what you have to. The Real Needs™ approach is the answer to this problem which is keeping many people up at night. One is far better safeguarding one's investment by adding a technology layer on top of the legacy IT systems.
This cost-effective solution can save half the price of competing systems because one buys only what one needs. KVM.net II and the IP Control, for centralized management and IP enablement respectively, are the only devices of their kind to offer legacy support of existing KVM infrastructure. Instead of spending thousands of dollars replacing server control systems you don't have, you can have the control and management you want, while at the same time keeping the bean-counters happy.

Containment

Interesting article from ARN on why Microsoft's plan to fill its Chicago data center with servers housed in 40-foot shipping containers won't work. You can't blame Microsoft for trying but is this the way to go? The article gives six reasons why it isn't. The solution to the data center riddle still needs to be solved and it will be a very lucrative one at that.

SmartRack KVM Drawer + 116/116 IP Switch

At last week's Interop 2008 we unveiled four new products the first of which was the Smart 116/116 IP. This product along with the other three was designed following Minicom's new Real Needs™ initiative, focusing on preserving the clients' KVM legacy infrastructure.

This new SmartRack series comes with flexibility and adaptability in mind. Available
as a stand alone unit, or integrated with either a 116 or 116 IP, the new modular design allows for customers to buy what they need at the time and upgrade as their needs do.
The great thing about the SmartRack KVM switches is that they 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. Use the KVM switch to control up to 16 servers in multiple platforms (PS/2, USB). Minicom’s innovative ROC technology has each computer/ server directly connected to the switch via a ROC using standard CAT5 cable at a distance of up to 30m/100ft in a star configuration.
It is a a single rail solution that occupies just 1U of rack space.
The SmartRack 116 IP extends your KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) from any computer or server over TCP/IP via LAN, WAN or Internet connection. Now you can control, monitor and manage up to 16 remote servers from wherever you are, inside or outside the organization. It's a cost-effective hardware solution, for secure remote KVM access & control of 16 computers/servers from the BIOS level - independent of the OS. One local analog or one remote digital IP user can access and control 16 multi-platforms (PS/2, USB) servers at a time.

Control & Monitor

Yesterday an event called Control & Monitor took place in Tel Aviv. Eight companies were invited to attend and it was an opportunity to showcase your stuff to 300 industry-related people. Amongst the other seven companies were HP Israel, AI Systems, Ayehu, 3CSI and Alexander Schneider.
Each company had time to speak. In our slot, Minicom gave its Real Needs™ presentation. The focus of this is the ability to upgrade control of your mission critical devices while preserving your investment. Each company also had a booth.
Here are some photos from the day:

InterOp 2008

Here are some photos from InterOp 2008 which was a great show.

On the Road

Making our way to Interop as we speak. Should be incredible.

Interop Sessions

Interop is just a few sleeps away now. Besides the booths there is a wide array of free sessions and events that people can attend. They are divided into nine categories:

• Data Center
• Enterprise 2.0
• Green IT
• IT Management
• Networking and Services
• Security Storage
• VOIP and UC
• Virtualization
• Wireless and Mobility
  

Pre-registration is encouraged for the Energy Camp and the Unconference sessions. For the others simply turn up.

Interop 2008

Interop Las Vegas is just five days away and excitement for it is building. For Minicom, the show holds particular interest as we will be unveiling a number of new products. Most notable the SmartRack 116/116 IP. The SmartRack 116 IP is KVM.net enabled and falls under its management umbrella which is ideal for those looking for centralized management. KVM.net is a central management appliance that provides accessibility, administration and secure management of KVM IP devices. With this 2-in-1 unit users can switch between 16 servers then access and control anyone of them.

Dynamic Duo

According to this article Dell and Egenera are getting together to deliver a fully integrated solution for employing dynamic data center environments. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this.

Interop Las Vegas 2008

Interop Las Vegas 2008 is now just some five weeks away.


It promises to be an incredible few days and we will be providing comprehensive of the event both before, during and after.

Bladelogic Goes Under the Hammer

BMC just bought BladeLogic for $800 million. This is sure to have an effect on the data center industry. Watch this space!

Greener Data Center

Apparently HP has a cheaper greener data center which will be available for a lazy $17,000. It's called the ProLiant DL785 G5 server.

Share and share alike

Here is an interesting article about the need for greener IT systems leading to sharing data centers. IBM's Rich Lechner makes some good points.

Between The Lines

Larry Dignan always writes well and this is no exception. Check out this article about the feeling of CIOs as to IT spending. The economy is always going to affect spending but on the other hand if someone needs to go out and buy something they will. It's the Micro vs Macro forces battling away at each other.

Interop Las Vegas 2008

Even though it's some six weeks away, excitement is already building for Interop Las Vegas 2008.
It is always one of the highlights of the year. Stay tuned for further and more in-depth coverage.

Shuffling the Deck

Had the pleasure of meeting with Ed Deckard from Deckard Innovative. Ed works with Cables To Go which many of you would know as being one of the best in the business.

The Digital Cave

Here is a cute blog I found all dedicated to the data center. It is called The Digital Cave. He writes nicely. Check it out.

CEBIT Day III

Today is the third day of CEBIT. There are some exciting things on the agenda today, namely Marketing in the Web 2.0 age - and the new power of consumers and a lecture by Peter Hirshberg the President of Technorati. So far CEBIT hasn't disapointed; a lot has been happening and there have been some things which have resulted in confused looks and head scratching. Never a dull moment though.

CEBIT 2008

Today is Day 2 of CEBIT 2008. If you are interested in seeing what is on today, here is a link to the schedule. We should have a report from CEBIT soon.

Rest In Peace

I found this interesting blog devoted to the KVM Switch and KVM Extender Technology. The only problem is that it hasn't had a post since June 2005. Think how far KVM technology has come regarding the KVM switch in that time! It began in December 2004 and only has 10 posts which is a shame because each of them was very informative. They even have a post about Minicom purchasing Replicom. The blog was written by Daxten which is a huge name in the KVM Switch industry.

KVM Switch - Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

When it comes to KVM Switches - 42U.com know what they're doing. For those of you new to the KVM Switch industry, still finding your way around, you might like to see the FAQ, 42U.com have up there.

It has answers to practically every KVM Switch-related question you would have. The questions are in seven categories: Installation and Set Up, Expansion and Replacement, Features of KVM Switches, Supported Features, Devices, and Platforms, Remote Power Management, Server Dongles, Security and Access Rights.

Knowledge Is Power

In the KVM industry, white papers are seen as an important part of the process. White papers are one of the primary ways in which to educating people about your products, their features and benefits. We have amassed our own collection of white papers and Silicon.com has a nice collection as well. In a complicated industry such as this, education has more significance.

FAQs

If you are new to a complex industry such as the KVM one, FAQs are a valuable to help understand what it is all about. KVM Switches Online has a nice FAQ section. Set out nicely, it answers most of the basic questions such as What is a KVM Switch, What is KVM Over IP and What is a KVM Extender in a simple, easy to understand manner. Very helpful for those who are still trying to get their head around all that is KVM.

CEBIT 2008

CEBIT 2008 is just a few weeks away now.



The show which is happening in Hannover, Germany is always a highlight of the year. More on it closer to the time.

I've Got The Power

KVM Technology grants you power. The power of control, access and management. All of this is summed up in this article. As the article says: The KVM switch also offers greater hands-on ability to troubleshoot network issues from a distance. Remote Support provides solutions which otherwise be unimaginable.

French Connection

Never got to post about the recent IT Partners conference in Paris but it was a fantastic event and quite a success.
This exhibition is quickly becoming the place to be for all the vendors and distributors of the IT market and on our first time there we came away very impressed. Almost 5000 visitors attended which was an astounding 51% increase from last year. We had a 18m² booth dedicated to our KVM products and our partnership progam with resellers and distributors
Among all of our products on show, the PX is the one which attracted the most interest. What also created a buzz was that we were one of the few booths at the show to demonstrate products live.
Here are some photos:

Back In The Saddle

Please forgive the recent lack of posts but was off having surgery. Will post more after I go through my 546 unread emails.

Nexus 7000

So Cisco are rolling out a new data-center switch. The Nexus 7000 looks like its going to be packing quite a punch. It won't be avilable for some time though.

Google gets in on the act

Last week, we saw the building of a new data center in Vietnam. Now Google wants to build a new on in Taiwan. They keep springing up everywhere.

Vietnam builds huge data center

Vietnam is getting in on the act as well. It's a good idea to build a data center there.

All At Sea

Interesting article here about a data center at sea. The idea is just so crazy it might work.

Cool It

Nice article from Chris Bennett of Network Appliance about looking how reducing energy consumption in the data center can lead to reduced costs. Chris makes some good points.

Daylight Robbery

In the light of some data center break-ins recently, there is a change in thinking in terms of data center security. As the article says, C I Host is one of those who are altering their mind set.

Up and ATEN

Interesting PR from ATEN. Looking to target the SMBs is a good move. How do you think the market will react?

Oregon goes for it

Interesting article here on data center consolidation.

Security

When it comes to concerns regarding data centers, security would be near the very top of the list. This article looks at how data theft hit record highs in 2007. The criminals are not stupid and realise the value of this information. Instead of trying to rob bank, jewellery stores or museums they are going after data. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds in 2008.

Year Ahead

Here is an interesting article looking at the year ahead in Operating Systems and Servers. Makes some very good points.

Looking Forward

And so another year is about to come to an end. Who knows what 2008 will bring and what we will be reflecting on in 12 months time?
Have a happy new year and looking forward to seeing you on deck in following the life and times of KVM Technology.

Powering Up

Here is an interesting article about an approach towards a data center which is bringing about significant cost savings.
Emerson Network Power is based in St Louis but has office all over the world.

2008 Wishlists

Who knows what 2008 will bring for the world of data centers? In this article, some data center managers tell us what they are wishing for in the new year. What are you wishing for?

School Data Center Restored

In some ways it's difficult to conceptualize what a school data center is as computers didn't exist when I went to school. Good to see that data centers in New Orleans are now being restored after the damage of Hurricane Katrina.
As you can see in the article was quite a job to get the data centers back to being operational.

Data Center Shortage?

This article outlines concerns that there could be a data center shortage in the future. Not sure if the answers given equate to a crisis but failing to plan could be akin to planning to fail.

Greening Up

This article looks at the greening of the date center as does this one. It is good to see how being green is becoming more of a priority.

Top Green 500

This is an interesting website - the Top Green 500. It ranks ranks systems by energy-efficiency. Check it out.

Cost of Power

An interesting article on the growing costs that would be experienced due to an increase in power requirements by data centers. Dr. Jonathan Koomey makes some very good points and gives a lot of food for thought.

Hit & Run

A data center in London has become the victim of an elaborate crime. Running off with $4 million in hardware, these guys clearing knew what they were doing. Crazy stuff!

Reducing Data Center Costs

An interesting article here on how to reduce data center costs. The point about minimizing downtime doesn't necessarily get the coverage it deserves. Downtime cripples an organization shouldn't be made light of.

CitiGroup Wins Green Award

The new Citi data center which is being built in Frankfurt was awarded Green Data Centre Award 2007 by DatacenterDynamics. Its good to see that green virtues are being recognised.

Data Center Disruptive Technologies

At the recent Gartner Data Center Conference , Carl Claunch gave a keynote speech on the Top 10 disruptive data center technologies.
He makes a lot of interesting points.

Green Thumbs

Green Computing isn't a new concept but its one which is becoming more and more in vogue. After the environmentalism of the 1980s, green issues seemed to take somewhat of a backseat but since the new decade, they have resurfaced as a priority.
Maybe this is because of climate change, global warming , El Niño and the like.

This article discusses the greening of technology. Not everyone is getting in on the act but maybe they will be led into action after seeing IBM and Hewlett-Packard do so.

It doesn't make sense to green things up from a moral point of view but also from a fiscal one. That alone should be more than enough incentive.

Mission Critical is a Critical Mission

When any mission critical device goes down, blood pressures go up. Every single second, let alone minutes and hours of downtime is bad news and a PR disaster. Hence Yahoo is going into damage control after problems they experienced yesterday with their small business department.

Problems and accidents are always going to happen - that's life. It's the ability to solve them quickly and with minimal collateral damage as possible which is the key.

Virtualization

Information Week has an interesting article securing the data center. While server virtualization is happening, people are still wary of the security implications of it.
When it comes to Data Centers, security is always going to be one of the highest priorities.

The Minicom Blog

To those of you who are new to this blog I want to welcome you. Here is also an introduction of sorts for you. This blog will run along the same lines as Minicom's Digital Signage Blog. In addition to commentary and analysis on KVM Technology, it will include interviews with identities in the KVM world as well as a thorough run down of Minicom's product range.
Should you have any questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any nature, please don't hesitate to send them to blog@minicom.com