The Raritan Blog

KVM Switches: What You Need to Know

Alyssa Scheyd
January 11, 2018

At its core, a KVM switch is simply a piece of hardware that allows one person to control multiple computers using a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse from a centralized location. The earliest examples of KVM switches on record actually pre-date the invention of the mouse itself, which is why they were originally used as testing tools for motherboard and production server quality tests.

With the advent of mouse interfaces like PS/2, USB, Sun, and Mac, however, the concept itself evolved into something much more meaningful than those original applications. For many organizations, KVM switches act as the backbone of their entire technological infrastructure - even if not everyone has necessarily come to realize that simple fact quite yet.