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”

Microsofts SMB Insight Report

Microsoft surveyed more than 600 of their Small Business Specialists as well as 1200 SMB's in the US, UK, France, Brazil, India, Germany, Mexico and China. Their study released today shows that SMB’s will use technology to cut costs and grow business. It’s a must read. Here’s what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says on the front page:

“Because they can respond so quickly as business conditions change, small and midsize companies have an advantage in a volatile and uncertain economic climate. The right information technology tools and solutions lets them build on this advantage by helping them cut costs and improve productivity today, while enabling them to stay focused on innovation so they will be poised for growth when the economy begins to turn around.”

Part of the study says that one of the trends and attitudes among SMBs, is an increase in remote workers. They state that “a majority of Small Business Specialists believe their SMB customers will increase their remote worker base and will expand the role/job function of remote employees in 2009.”

This is good news for us – since we specialize in remote server management!

Go to the full study now>>

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Related Material:

White Paper: Boost Your ROI by investing in KVM IP Management
Webcast: Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Server KVM Access (3.15 min)
Webcast: Why should your organization use KVM IP (4:48 min)
Learn More: Minicom Real Needs Approach

Product Spotlight - Smart 2 Buy Switches for Small to Mid-size Businesses

For a number of years, 2 user switches have been the most popular model of KVM in the data center. From the enterprise to the mid-tier to a small company’s server room, two concurrent users is the most commonly requested configuration in the KVM industry. There have been a handful of studies done to understand why 2 user switches are so popular which found that the inherent blocking built in to single user switches is most likely the reason.

In small data rooms like an SMB environment with between 20-30 servers, a multi-user KVM IP switch is a perfect tool for cost effective remote, BIOS level server management, as well as local, at the rack access. The ROC dongles for 2 user switches allow servers to be up to 100’ from the switch with no video resolution distortion. This means more than 1 cabinet or servers/desktops (not in a cabinet) can be connected to the switch and managed effortlessly.

Minicom recently added a couple of 2-user switches to our Smart Family Line, a competitively priced solution for businesses with multiple branch locations. These offices often have several servers and network devices but do not have a full time IT person. Remote BIOS level access provides IT staff at corporate headquarters with a quick, cost effective and simple way to get access to servers and devices in remote offices.

The new Smart 216 IP, also available with 32 ports - Smart 232 IP, enables one local and two remote users, access and control of up to 16 (or 32) servers. In addition, two remote users can operate serial sessions for controlling serial devices such as routers, managed network switches or PDU's.

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Related Resources:

• White Paper: “Remote Support using KVM IP Technology”
• Upcoming Webinar: Remote KVM Management 101, March 24th, 2:00 EST
• NEW Webcast: The Smart 2-User KVM Series
• Free Live Online Demo of all Minicom IP Products

Added Features: Server Access Management Capability

The recently launched Smart 216IP & 232IP multi-user IP KVM Switches enable one local and two remote users, access and control of up to 16 or 32 servers simultaneously.

In these IP KVM Switches there is a built-in access management system that allows you to configure the users’ connection permission. You can define that a user that logs into the system either from the local or remote will have access to some of the servers that are connected to the KVM switch.

For example, Michelle in the marketing department has limited access which has been assigned to her. She only needs to remotely access the internal presentation server in order to manage the corporate digital signage system. On the other hand, the IT staff has different server access assigned to them which allow them to manage their parking lot cameras and security fence devices which are also assigned to specific servers.

Using the Smart 216IP & 232IP graphical management interface you can define up to 16 users accounts that each of them may have access to specific KVM & Serial ports, and when the Smart 216IP/232IP are been managed by the KVM.net II system there is no limitation to the number of users you can define in the system.

Surviving 2009 With Remote KVM

Guest Post by Rami Sasson, Vice President Sales at Minicom

I came across an article, Data center efficiency critical for surviving 2009 by Matt Stansberry, Executive Editor, Data Center and Virtualization Media, TechTarget. In the article Mr. Stansberry points out that the need for more computing power in the datacenter will continue to increase despite the economic downturn and slashed budgets so companies will have to do more with what they have.

I think this also true for remote KVM. With IT staffs being cut along with all other department head count reductions the need for the IT staff efficiency is paramount. Having the ability to have full remote access to hardware is critical for admins to minimize server downtime but I hear from many companies they don't have the budgets to upgrade to expensive digital KVM switches. This is where the power of Minicom's "Real Needs" approach to KVM solutions grabs their attention. We explain to a corporate CIO they can continue to use their existing KVM switch and simply upgrade it to an IP KVM for a fraction of the cost of putting in a completely new digital KVM.

The IT staff organization must live with the reality that they have to do more with less but that does not mean throwing up their hands in desperation. What do you Really need? Minicom can provide it.

An excerpt of the article:

Data center efficiency critical for surviving 2009
by Matt Stansberry, Executive Editor, Data Center and Virtualization Media, TechTarget

Extending the life of the data center in lean times. Despite the down economy, business demand for data center services continues to increase. And the cost of building data centers has skyrocketed. During boom times, companies would build new data center facilities because they have run out of power and cooling capacity and literally can’t supply more power into the building. But in today’s economic and credit climate, this isn’t a workable solution.

"Take a look around you. What you have now is likely what you are going to have to work with going forward, at least until the economy picks up," said Chuck Goolsbee, a data center executive at Seattle-based hosting firm Digital Forest. "If facility or operations staff have grandiose plans in process, expect them to get scaled back or shelved. Even projects in progress are at risk."

According to Goolsbee, executives aren’t funding data center projects. And even if they were, outside financing in the form of debt would be almost impossible to find.
"Ironically, demand for data center services is not going to change that much," Goolsbee said. "In my 15 years in the business, data center demand has remained on a steady ramp and hardly ever wavered."

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Want to learn more about Remote KVM Access?

Join Minicom for a FREE Webinar Remote Management - 101

Date: March 24, 2009

Time: 2:00 PM EST (Duration 1 hour)

Whether you have 10 servers or 500, learn the basic tools needed to remotely access and manage servers, PCs and devices. You’ll learn the difference between RDP, VNC, ILO and KVM. You’ll understand each tool’s value and about the products that enable you to effectively utilize all of them in an efficient and intuitive manner. If you are an IT salesperson or consultant looking to get a better understanding of the most commonly used tools and terminology that your customers utilize or an IT professional looking for a solution to a disjointed remote management strategy, this webinar is for you.

If you cannot make the live webinar, all of our podcasts and archived webinars are available at the Minicom Media Club.

Event Summary: KVM.net II Certification

Last week, 15 Minicom resellers braved the terrible weather and travelled to the NY/NJ area to become certified to sell KVM.net II, Minicom’s revolutionary remote access management platform. Our local partners were well represented while others came from as far away as Colorado, Texas, and Canada. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Randy Yoder of Iowa City’s Mercy Hospital. Randy gave our resellers a great presentation about Mercy’s specific requirements and how Minicom provided a solution with a mix of the PX and KVM.net II.

The day also included an overview of KVM.net II positioning, key differentiators, features and functionality and several case studies. Our partners were able to configure the KVM.net II during the “hands on” portion of the day prior to any technical training, proving that KVM.net II is the most intuitive remote access management platform on the market. During the group sessions our partners were separated into 4 groups, each with a distinct list of customer requirements. Each group was tasked to develop a solution to meet their customer’s requirements and present the solution to all of the participants.

These partners are now members a select group of certified resellers of KVM.net II. They left the training with a detailed understanding not only of KVM.net II, but Minicom’s entire remote access solution set and value proposition. With the sales activity that began immediately after the event, we are proud to call the event an unmitigated success.

Jennifer Vallarautto, President, TechSolutions, Inc./Office Out Of The Box had this to say:

“When I was invited to attend Minicom’s training on KVM.net II, I was not sure what to expect. After all, I am in sales, and have not installed or used any of these products myself. After the training, which took only a day, I not only knew product benefits and features, I also knew how to use the systems. As a certified partner, I am now better able to consult with my customers and help them select the best products for them.”

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Related:

• Mercy Hospital Webinar (archived version – play now)
• KVM.net II Remote Access Management Platform Live Test Drive
• WHITE PAPER: “Boost Your ROI by investing in KVM IP Management”
• Case Study: Centralized management system for a government agency
• Office Out of the Box Blog Post about KVM.net II

Upcoming Webinar: Smart 2-User KVM Series

Join us for this short product review webinar. Minicom's Smart 2-User Family consists of 4 new different products - The Smart 232 IP, Smart 216 IP, Smart 232 and Smart 216.

Come learn why these products are different that any other 2 user products in the market.

The Smart 216 IP and Smart 232 IP although offered as 2 user switches can really act like a 5 user switches at the same time on the same switch - 2 users over IP; plus one local user; plus 2 serial remote connections to serial devices. Come learn the details.

Speakers Include:
David Zucker,Director, Business Development - KVM Division
Ivo PetrovDirector, Technical Support

Date: March 12, 2009

Time: 2:00 PM EST

Topic: Product Review: Minicom's new Smart 2-User KVM Series
Space is limited so register for this free webinar today.

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Related:

• KVM IP Product Test Drive: Go to Minicom Online KVM IP Demo
• White Paper: "Remote Support using KVM IP Technology "
• Podcast: “Why should your organization use KVM IP?”

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…

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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.

IT Managers in Healthcare Cont'd

I recently posted a webinar on demand about IT managers at hospitals, now there is a great interview at Tech Republic of CIO Patrick Moroney who takes time to explain the changes and challenges facing IT in the healthcare industry.

Jeff Cerny of Tech Republic asks CIO Patrick Moroney “10 questions on the changing role of the healthcare IT executive”

"Patrick Moroney is a CIO with a knack for being a professional change agent as well as a world-class networker, which is a winning combination by any measure. He is president of the Barnier Group, performing CIO advisory services at New Mountain Capital and advising Houston-based Intermarine. He’s also the driving force behind the 6,000+ members of the Technology Leadership Association, which he founded in 2002. He has been the CIO at National Medical Health Care Services, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), ServiceMaster, and the Food & Nutrition division at Monsanto. He has held a variety of roles on six continents and is a member of the Society for Information Management. Patrick received the 2004 CIO of the Year award from the Executives’ Club of Chicago. While he was the CIO of HCSC, he took the #21 spot in Computerworld’s top 100 best IT workplaces of 2005. And in 2006, he was was included in Computerworld’s Top 100 CIOs list."

Go to: "10 questions on the changing role of the healthcare IT executive”

Webinar on Demand: The Challenge for Hospital IT Managers

With hundreds of servers spread throughout numerous locations, it can be extremely time consuming and challenging to track down and manage troublesome servers and network devices in hospital environments. To solve these challenges and make the day to day maintenance of servers and devices in hospital network closets more efficient, Minicom has developed the solution outlined in this quick webinar.



Learn "How to use Remote Management of Network Closets in the Hospital Environment"

Total time: 12 minutes

Presented by: David Zucker, Director of KVM Business Development, Minicom

Customer Stories Wanted

This is a call for customer stories which I would like to feature on the blog regularly.

As Minicom system integrators and partners, you are the eyes and ears to the end users. I am looking for customer stories to publish on a regular basis. With your help we can offer solution ideas that can be helpful for others.

Please take a minute to submit the following information from a recent installation or sale:

1. What is the type of customer? IT manager of SMB or vertical market? Bank, school, etc? (we respect the privacy rights of our customers and will not use a company name unless there is permission to do so.)
2. What is the specific problem they need to solve?
3. What Minicom product did you use for the solution? And, were there any other products that worked together with Minicom to help solve the problem?
4. What is the reason the customer chose this specific problem? Financial, easy use, simplify actions?
5. Did this specific solution help you in the future to solve similar problems?
6. If there was any feedback, what was it?
7. How did this solution help the customer?
8. Do you have a pictures of where the installation took place for a visual reference?

If your customer story is chosen to appear on the blog, do you want to help promote your business with a free link to your business/company or direct contact information? If not, please specify and we will keep all information anonymous.

Please send all customer stories to minicom@minicom.com

Thank you for your participation!

Support Report: Remote monitor & control multiple computers over IP from a single computer

Recently we had an interesting application request that I would like to share…

A customer requested a solution to allow him to remotely monitor and control five computers which are located in multiple locations.

His requirement was that there would be five screens attached to a “Master” PC and this Master PC will constantly monitor the remote computers and take the control when needed. There is also a need to maintain a local console next to each remote computer for local operation. Another important requirement is that there should be no software installed on the remote computers.

We recommended adding a Quad VGA adaptor to the “Master computer” that will allow him to connect five screens to the Master PC at once, along with using our IP Control he can remotely view and control each computer without the need of installing any application on them (this feature is also known as remote bios level access). The Smart Extender that is also added to each remote PC will allow the local user to ‘share’ the control with the administrator working from the Master PC without being disconnected.

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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.

Reseller Seminar & KVM.net II Certification Invitation

If you are a Minicom Reseller, please join us for a Partner Product Seminar & become certified to sell Minicom’s revolutionary Centralized Remote Access & Management Solution – KVM.net II

During the seminar you will learn:

• Why centralized access is critical to your customers, large and small.
• The exclusive advantages of the KVM.NET II solution.
• To position a central access solution to your small, medium and large IT end customers
• How to design solutions to real life customer problems
• Hands on training with KVM.net II and other remote access products.
• How to access valuable sales tools
  

Event Location and Details:

• At the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Elizabeth, NJ
• 0.5 miles from the Newark International Airport

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

• 9:30 - 12:30 Product Introduction
• 1:30 - 5:30 Certification Training

Please RSVP by February 15, 2009 to: David Zucker at David.Zucker@minicom.com

Please Note: If you are not from the area, room reservations can be made here. Advanced Room Rate Specials are available from $63.95 onwards.

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Previous attendees said:

Jim Fry, President, Fox Network Systems:

"KVM.net II certification training was probably the best focused product training I've seen in a decade. Although the training had participants at all levels of prior experience and technical knowledge, the Minicom leaders kept the participants and material on track and focused. This made sure the beginners weren't lost and the "old-timers" weren't bored silly. Minicom people kept attendees interested and involved with lecture, tests and interactive groups. My hat's off to the Minicom team for a job well done."

Jim Mollencop, DataSPAN - Territory Manager PNW:

"The certification program for KVM.net II was VERY informative and helpful! Not only does Minicom have a great IT solution that is simple to set up, use and sell at great margins, but also provides a great marketing tool for these tough economic times called "Minicom's real needs approach" said Jim Mollencop, dataSPAN Territory Manager PNW. "Literally a few days after the training I visited a client and discussed the "real needs approach" and was immediately asked for a quote at the meeting."

Support Report: Remote Bios Level Access over 3g Network

From time to time we receive interesting technical support questions and seeing as how it's always fun to share in-house, we are going to also share them here:

Recently a telecommunications company requested to remotely control a PC not dependant on the operating system (also known as remote bios level access). Ideally, the connection would be over cellular network. The main concern was quality of performance when controlling a remote desktop over a 3g network… and primarily how fast will the screen refresh!?

The application he intended on using was to mend an application from anywhere, in other words he has an application that needs to be mended regardless of the physical location of the operator.

Most of the time he needs the remote collection to be over Lan or wireless but there will be times where the remote operator will connect to the cellular network. Their requirement was also not to install any application or driver on the controlled computer.

This is where our KVM over IP technology suits his needs. By using the PX USB (Minicom’s high-performance IP Gateway) or IP Control (remote KVM gateway) products we were able to demonstrate and control a remote computer over a 3g cellular network with excellent performance.

Learn how remote KVM gateways can work for your IT needs, download the FREE white paper “Remote Support using KVM IP Technology” or test one of Minicom's IP products in an interactive live demo - go to Request Demo Form.

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

Do you have a technical question about a Minicom KVM product? Visit Minicom Support for FAQ's, product updates, user guides and contact details for our expert technicians around the world.

SMB Tweets

Twitter has been around a while now, and if you don't know what it is or how small business can get the most out of this free tool, just go see what Bernie Borges of BAMB (Bay Area Business Magazine) wrote in his article: "Is Twitter a Corporate Communication Tool?"

I agree with Bernie when he says "The opportunities for businesses to use Twitter are plentiful. Individuals within your company can create a Twitter profile. They can post comments about things that are happening in your company or your industry. They can search to find and follow people who share common interests by searching in Twitter using relevant keywords."

If you are considering starting a Twitter feed for your small business, there are helpful FAQ's on Twitter for a good overview.

Jason Hiner over at Tech Republic recently posted "Techies: The top 10 people you should follow on Twitter". There are much more than 10 on his list which is definitely worth looking at.

You can now follow Minicom on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Minicom_IT

Free Webinar Invitation

Is the current economic situation delaying your plans to upgrade your server rooms? Join us for a FREE Webinar: Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access

Date: Friday, February 6, 2009

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST

Now, more than ever, we need to concentrate on our Real Needs:

Remote access? Yes, that's a real need.

Replacing your perfectly good KVM switches? Not so much.

This short webinar will focus on how to give your Data Center's KVM infrastructure a facelift and transform it into a remotely accessible IP system without replacing any 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 existing products.

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.


System Requirements:

PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, VistaMacintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Minicom KVM Switch Technology Chosen by the Largest Bus and Tram Operator in Gothenburg, Sweden

Minicom’s keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) switch technology was selected by the largest bus and tram operator in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Customer is the largest bus and tram operator in Gothenburg, Sweden. The overcrowding in their seven Network Operations Centers (NOCs) was causing slow downs in operations and service. They wanted to cut down on equipment to streamline operations. Each NOC had a single manager monitoring eight servers. These servers were in turn connected to eight monitors, which they want to keep. They wanted to reduce the numbers of keyboards and mice from eight to one in every one of the NOC´s.

The Bus Company contacted a system integrator that works with Intronics Sweden. They told them what they were looking for and asked for help in building a solution. Intronics turned to Minicom. Minicom suggested installing a single Smart 108 KVM switch plus eight VGA extenders for the monitors at each NOC. This was a new technology for Intronics Sweden, so they first tested some other brands, but Minicom´s solution was finally chosen as the best. Intronics installed a Smart 108 KVM switch for switching the keyboard and mouse between the servers and a VGA extender for connecting each monitor to a server.

It was mainly a question of time and money. The quick delivery was a big part of the solution, because they had a strict time limit in which they had to finish the installation. Minicom was able to deliver its solution within the two week deadline. As a result of the Minicom solution, the Bus Company has decreased the numbers of keyboards and mice in their NOCs. Their managers are now more effective since they no longer have to jump around the office going from PC to PC and can control all their servers from a single console.

SMB IT On Air

I recently started looking around at Blog talk radio after seeing that they have a channel called Small Business IT, which is based in Calgary Canada.

Small Business IT Radio is a show for IT Professionals that service the small business market. In this show we will cover everything from technology to how to market your business. All are welcome

Today’s show is “Leveraging Kaseya in your SMB IT Business” Kaseya is a monitoring tool available to SMB IT Professionals.

All other shows are available on demand, including the 2008 recap:

“2008 – The Year of the Rollercoaster” - 2008 was a roller coaster year to say the least. Starting off with a bang and ending with uncertainty of what the future has to offer the SMB IT consultant. With the economy failing and the threat of online services taking away from our sales, what does 2009 have to offer us?

It’s always nice to hear good advice and up to date information. It’s worth it to take some time to listen to them.

Security Spending To Increase In 2009

“Security is getting a bigger piece of the IT budget pie,” said Jonathan Penn, author and vice president of tech industry strategy and security, about a recent Forrester report.

The next biggest issues were disaster recovery, followed by identity and access management.

This is good to hear, considering Minicom is in the Access Management business. Our Centralized Access & Management System, KVM.net II fits right into this category.

For your Server Room or Datacenter KVM.net II will:

• Automate centralized remote access
• Create customized access services
• Use a single portal to access ANY of your IT assets via a single-click
• Keep your existing KVM infrastructure
• Preserve your investment in training time
• Unify administration of targets and users across geographic locations to distributed branch offices
  
  A free interactive online demo is available, just fill out this short form and set up a time that is convenient for you.

Starting a Small Business Advice

While some people are taking a holiday break, Stefan Töpfer of The Small Business Blog isn’t. His latest post targets those of us who might be making new years resolutions to “Start my own home business or small business”.

His 5-step plan is solid:

Define Your Goals
Get A Business Idea
Test Your Business Idea
Bootstrap All The Way
Stay Focused, Always!

If you are planning to start your own small business in these rough times, take some time to read or listen to the article as a podcast.

Stefan Töpfer is CEO & Chairman of WinWeb (which developed OnlineOffice - The Small Business Infrastructure). His blog, The Small Business Blog is one that I’m adding to my list to watch. Good advice and resources for small businesses!

Free Webinar: Minicom's Smart 2-User Series

Free Webinar Invitation

Date: December 18th, 2008
Time: 3:00 - 4:00 PM EST (1 hour)
Topic: Minicom's new Smart 2-User KVM Series

Speakers Include:
David Zucker, Director, Business Development - KVM Division
Ivo Petrov Director, Technical Support

Limited space is available

Minicom's Smart 2-User Family consists of four new different products. Join us for this free product introduction webinar. Learn why these products are different that any other 2-user products in the market.

Smart 216 IP – 16 port CAT5 switch with 2 remote users and 1 local user
Smart 216 – 2-user, 16 port KVM switch



Smart 232 IP – 32 port CAT5 switch with 2 remote users and 1 local user
Smart 232 - 2-user, 32 port KVM switch

These competitively priced switches have great mouse synchronization and are compatible with our remote access management tool - KVM.net® II. Combining innovative CAT5 technology and OSD management, the Smart CAT5 switches are the perfect KVM solution for SMB server and rack environments.

Limited space is available

Can't make it? Schedule a free online IP product demo with a Minicom rep at a time that is convenient for you and in the meantime download a free white paper on “KVM IP Management for Today’s IT Budget”

Announcement: Minicom Partners with Alexander Schneider

Minicom recently established a partnership with Alexander Schneider Ltd, the leading solution provider for datacenters, and representatives at the forefront of the Green IT industry in Israel.

Eli Sasson, President of Minicom says: “we are happy to have Alexander Schneider as a part of our international distribution network. The reason they were chosen was because of their professional capabilities to implement advanced solutions in server rooms in most of the leading companies in Israel. Another reason is their reputation for excellent customer support, which they provide 24/7.”

According to Igal Schneider, CEO “the cooperation with Minicom enriches the offerings of solutions that Schneider provides its customers in the server room. Some customers that we currently service are Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim, Visa Kal, Rafael, Elbit, Nice, Comverse, Checkpoint, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance & others…..“Minicom has a wide portfolio that fits with the SMB perfectly; furthermore, the closeness to the R&D center will enable customization of unique solutions for the Israeli market. This is a natural cooperation between both companies that believe in advanced technological solutions along with reliable support to the customer”

About Alexander Schneider Ltd.
As a leader in the field of data center management, Alexander Schneider Ltd. provides hi-performance products and Turn Key solutions for OEM systems and data center infrastructure, offering leading-edge products, integration services as well as engineering and design (NPI) capabilities. Alexander Schneider has been in business since 1963, with operations in Netanya, Israel and Rhode Island, USA.

For more information please visit their website.

SMB Nation - Bringing IT Together

In a comment in a post about getting to know SMB IT better, SMB Nation CEO Harry Brelsford was kind enough to recommend their site for inclusion in my research. After taking some time to look it over and join the “tribe”, I am pleased to see how much they offer the SMB IT professionals. There is much to learn from them.

SMB Nation reaches its audience with events and free webinars. Their next webinar: ”Not Just Another 50 cent Online Backup Service!“ is scheduled for tomorrow, December 11, 2008, 8AM PST (GMT-8).

Learn how the real VARs, MSPs and trusted advisors create revenue opportunities with remote online backup protection services. Learn how the latest compliance regulations will create long-term relationships and revenue streams for your business. Find out why those cheap backup services create a false sense of security and are not telling the whole story.

Register now at SMB Nation

They also offer most of their webinars on-demand, which is very helpful for someone who needs information right away.

I took the opportunity to get a closer look, and choose to watch “SMB Mergers and Acquisitions: Time to Sell Your SMB Practice?” It is well worth investing a little over one hour to hear their tips on how to run your business in a way that makes it ready to sell, and why you should run your business this way, even if you aren’t looking to sell.

Check out the other educational webinars available at SMB Nation.

2008 Year of The Milestone, according to Channel Web

Channel Web has published their pick of the best products of 2008.

The Test Center evaluated hundreds of products in 2008, from the palmtop to the data center and everything in between. In selecting each product of the year, Test Center editors needed to make sure that there was a critical offering to the market at large, significant value to the end user and immediate impact on how the lion's share of solution providers in the channel would think about and deliver technology.

Some of the products that made the cut are

• Notebook - WINNER: Lenovo ThinkPad X300
• Operating System - WINNER: Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Web Application - WINNER: Firefox 3.0
• Smartphone - WINNER: iPhone 3G
• Product Of The Year - WINNER: Intel Modular Server

See the rest of the slideshow... including reasons why they choose these products to represent the best of 2008.

A Closer Look at SMB IT

I'm just getting in to the SMB IT industry from the marketing side of things and while researching, the first site that popped up in search was SMBITPROS.com. I did a quick overview and my initial impression is that this is a great resource for up to date, practical advice for this sector.

smbITpros.com cover topics that deal with SMB IT such as:

• Finances
• Managing
• Marketing
• Operations
• Sales
• Starting Up
• Technology

This is how they describe themselves:

"smbitpros.com is the ramblings of Michael Cooch and Josh Clifford, Founder/CEO and CSO (Chief Service Officer), respectively, of Everon Technology Services, LLC. Everon is a pioneer and leader in the SMB managed services space, serving clients around the United States and a handful of offices in Europe."

Their latest post “How to compensate salespeople when they sign longer term managed services contracts?” hit home with something Minicom manufactures. If you want to hear our perspective on managed service providers, listen to this podcast by David Zucker, Minicom’s Director of Business Development of the IT & KVM Division. David will explain how “managed service providers can now sell a KVM IP device as a monthly service” using Minicom’s PX.

The Minicom Media Club offers a variety of free podcasts and archived webinars for your enjoyment.

Mission Impossible – Destroy Data on a Stolen Laptop

When you work remotely or have the need to access and manage a server over IP, you will most likely be using a company laptop. What happens when you loose or misplace your laptop that has privileged or top secret information? It doesn’t matter who you are, if you ever lost your laptop or had it stolen you know the uneasy feeling of having someone finding it and looking at all your data.

Lenevos came out with a new feature that allows you to just send an SMS to it and everything self destructs. This is an ingenious invention. No doubt, someone came up with the idea after having their own laptop stolen or lost with top secret data on it. With all the fears of identity theft, even if it’s not for a corporate computer, I would want one for my personal use – there is way too much information on there.

Read the eWeek article with the new “Constant Secure Remote Disable” feature by Lenovos that will be available on certain ThinkPad notebooks equipped with mobile broadband.

Weekly News – Nov 20, 2008

Overview of industry headlines from across the web:

New Laptop USB KVM With Dual PC Control, File Transfer, and USB 2.0 Peripheral Access Unveiled by ATEN Technology – Market Watch - Key features include seamless file transfer between two computers, plug-and-play functionality, and access to USB 2.0 peripherals such as external storage drives. The device also adjusts the resolution of the remote desktop window to match the local computer monitor.

Raritan Acquires dcTrack Software to Bolster Data Center Power Management Capabilities – Market Watch - Adds visualization and tracking technologies for improving data center efficiency and reducing energy costs

ATEN Technology Launches New 8- and 16-Port Dual Channel CAT5 KVM Switches – Earth Times - The switches are eight and 16-port units that provide two operators with independent and simultaneous access to eight or 16 connected servers

IOGEAR is Named CES Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Award Honoree – sys-con.com - IOGEAR's Wireless USB to VGA Kit enables HD video streaming up to 720p between a PC and TV or projector.

Minicom Road Show Report

19 IT Valued Added Resellers (VARs) got together last week for a 1 day sales certification program held in Santa Ana, California. They came to learn about Minicom’s KVM.net II innovative way of accessing and managing in-band tools like VNC and RDP with out-of-band tools like KVM, HP ILO and power - all from one portal.

One of the participants, Jim Mollencop, dataSPAN Territory Manager PNW had this to report:

“The certification program for KVM.net II was very informative and helpful! Not only does Minicom have a great IT solution that is simple to set up, use and sell at great margins, but also provides a great marketing tool for these tough economic times called “Minicom’s real needs approach”. Literally a few days after the training I visited a client and discussed the “real needs approach” and was immediately asked for a quote at the meeting.”

David Zucker, Minicom’s Director of KVM Business Development had this to say:

“Our partners were engaged, excited and participated more than I could have hoped for in a full day of training complete with demos and workshops. The IT resellers told us that Minicom's “Real Needs Approach” (Add-on Technology that maximizes your IT installed base) will be very compelling for their customers. The group sessions were tremendous and reconfirmed to us that we have some fantastic partners who know their stuff.”

To become a Certified Minicom KVM.net II value added reseller, please call Minicom at 1-888-486-2154 to register for the next training session.

In the meantime, you can download our free white papers such as “KVM IP Management for Today’s IT Budget” or videos such as “Achieving Remote Server KVM Access to your data center” to find out why we suggest not throwing out perfectly good KVM switches and serial devices just because you need to upgrade to an IP environment.

Webinar Invitation: Recession-proof Ways to Upgrade your Data Centers

Is the current economic climate delaying your plans to upgrade the data center? Now, more than ever, we need to concentrate on what are our 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.

In this webinar, 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.

Webinar Details:
Date: November 20, 2008
Time: 2:00 - 2:40 pm EST

CLICK HERE & REGISTER NOW

This free webinar has limited seats, please hurry and register.

Presented by David Zucker
Director, Business Development, KVM Division
Minicom Advanced Systems

Slowing Economy to Blame, Says Google

Slowing economy was a factor in Google’s decision to push back its construction timetable for the $600 million dollar data center facility being built on 800 acres of land in Pryor, Oklahoma.

Data Center Knowledge explains more details of the ramifications of the delay.

In addition, a huge advertising deal between Google and Yahoo was called off this week.

Google is also scheduled to close operations in Tempe, AZ at the end of November and relocate about 50 employees from the Arizona State University campus.

It's hard to ignore when the economy forces giants like Google to make budget cutbacks and downsize.

Article: Has the downturn hit the IT industry?

An article by By Jason Stamper at CBR IT services site gives some interesting insight on how technology firms are doing in the current economical crisis. Budget cuts and staff reductions affect every sector of the work force. Major layoffs are reported daily, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, at least not in the USA. There is some good news for the UK though.

How are technology firms fairing as the crisis of confidence in the financial sector begins to ripple through the rest of the economy?

Despite the fact that technology has the potential to massively boost the productivity of individuals and companies, it rarely gets away scot free when there is any kind of stock market or economic crisis. ‘It was over-hyped.’ ‘It wasn’t innovative enough.’ ‘They didn’t even consider that the Year 2000 wasn’t that far off when they programmed their mainframes.’

So it comes as little surprise that technology has been implicated in the downfall of Bradford & Bingley, since its poorly integrated systems meant that its bosses did not have visibility into the real financial state of the building society when they most needed to know.

Bradford & Bingley’s chiefs said they didn’t need to raise funds with a rights issue, then they said they did need a rights issue, then they said they had priced the rights issue too low, and ultimately they said even a rights issue wasn’t enough to plug the leaks (more on this story on the CBR editor’s blog at tinyurl.com/6pn8l2).

Economic downturn
One thing is certain: the signs are not good for the broader economy right now. It’s getting harder and harder not to use ‘the r word’ – recession – because even the economists are saying that’s where we’re headed: "The sharp decline in service sector activity in September leaves little doubt that the economy contracted in the third quarter and is on its way into recession," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, last month (http://tinyurl.com/6gnfbe).

But how are the technology companies themselves fairing against the backdrop of this latest economic crisis? Well if it’s a bellwether you are after, look no further than IBM. With a finger in almost every software, services and hardware pie, it’s not a bad reflection of how the technology sector as a whole is performing. The good news is that IBM did rather well overall in its third quarter, just announced. Total revenues were up 5% to $25.3bn; services revenue was up 8% and software revenue was up 12%. Net income was up 20% to $2.8bn.

The area of some concern for IBM is its hardware operation, or what it calls its Systems and Technology group. Revenue there was down 10%. It’s not what you’d expect though: the mainframe is going great guns with revenue from the System z up 25%. Its System p Unix boxes were up 7%, too. But the admittedly very cyclical System i (formerly iSeries, and before that AS/400) business was down 82%, and System x servers (Windows or Linux boxes) were down 18%.

Still, chairman, president and CEO Sam Palmisano was relatively upbeat: “Our results demonstrate that the combination of a steady base of recurring revenue and profits, a range of products and services that deliver value to clients worldwide, and a strong and flexible financial foundation give IBM a competitive edge in good times and tough times," he said. “We remain confident in our full-year 2008 outlook.”

SAP announced third quarter total sales up 14% to 2.7bn Euros. But net income was down 5% to 388m Euros.

Said SAP co-CEO Henning Kagermann, “The third quarter 2008 was SAP’s 19th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in software and software-related service revenues at constant currencies. This was an achievement in a period where the global financial crisis had a significant impact on customer decisions towards quarter end.”

“Customers are continuing to spend on our products, but the economic and business environment is uncertain,” he said. “Our business model is flexible, and we are focusing on protecting our operating margins and earnings.”

Kagermann continued, “We are assessing business activity continuously, and we are balancing the need for greater efficiencies with steady advancements in our products, customer services and technologies, while addressing customers’ most critical business issues. This approach has worked well for customers and SAP throughout the up and down economic cycles of the past, and has contributed to SAP’s market leadership. We’ve been through uncertainty before, and have always emerged as a better, stronger and more efficient company.”
Tech sector holding steady?

Another bellwether, Oracle, had even better news when it announced its first quarter results in September. The erstwhile database vendor has been aggressively broadening into both applications and its Fusion Middleware in recent years, and the strategy seems still to be working. Total sales were up 18% to $5.3bn, and net income was up 28% to $1.1bn.

As for the UK, it seems the technology sector may actually be fairing slightly better than others in these tough times. Research by Ernst & Young last month found that the number of profit warnings from listed companies in the software & computer services sector in the UK has actually fallen despite the worsening economic climate. In Q3 of 2008 a total of 7 warnings were issued by 5 companies in the sector, compared to 9 over the same period in 2007.

Other sectors are not fairing so well. Across all sectors in the UK, 111 profit warnings were issued in the third quarter, up almost a third on 2007. Neither size nor status has proven to be of much insurance against the current downturn, Ernst & Young said.

James Bennet, technology director at Ernst & Young, commented: “Q3 has been less challenging for software and IT services companies, mostly because they went into the downturn slightly earlier than other sectors. We would however express caution about the climate and the likely health of the technology sector in the coming two quarters, particularly with the dramatic downturn in the overall economy.”

Webinar on Demand: Achieving Remote Server KVM Access to Your Data Center

In case you didn't catch our Webinar covering Remote Server Access for your Data Center, an archived version is available so you can watch it any time, at your convenience.


Total Time: 22 minutes


Title: "Achieving Remote Server KVM Access to Your Data Center"


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


Talking points:

• 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 about extending the lives of your products.

Watch it now - it's FREE!

You can also download the corresponding white paper:

"KVM IP Management for Today’s IT Budget"

Add-on Technology that maximizes your IT installed base

Fortunately, there exists a Real Needs approach that allows you to cost-effectively achieve remote access and management by adding a KVM IP technology layer on top of your existing analog switches thereby preserving and maximizing your current investment. Read Minicom’s new white paper that elaborates on this Real Needs approach.

Podcast: Why should your organization use KVM IP?

LISTEN NOW

Total Time: 4:48 minutes

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

Talking points:

• The numerous benefits of KVM IP access and management have made them the new must have technologies for IT managers.
• By allowing fast access from a remote location to distributed IT companies can reduce downtime, slash travel costs, lower cooling costs and increase security.
• With remote out-of-band access, connectivity is guaranteed even if the network fails.

LISTEN NOW

Learn more, download one of the latest Minicom White Papers FREE!

CASESTUDY: AGH University in Poland Installs Universal System

AGH is Poland’s second largest University and its IT department needed one universal system that 2 or more administrators sitting in 3 separate work stations can manage 20 servers located in a server room. To achieve this they hired C&C Partners Telecom to design and install a solution.

Quick Take:

Clients Challenge
• Superior server management
• Allow multi-user level access

Minicom Solution
• DX System
• IP Control

Benefits
• Significantly increased server access
• More streamlined work environment
• Increased productivity and efficiency

Read more of this case study and others on the Minicom site.