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Richard Dominach
February 28, 2012
A recent InfoWorld article entitled “Got remote access? Lock it down” makes the claim that “poorly configured remote-access programs routinely account for a significant portion of data breaches and network security incidents.” It further cites RDP and VNC as “the two top culprits.” Incredibly it estimates 83 million open VNC ports and 230 million RDP ports.
Compare this to the use of KVM-over-IP systems, which do not share the vulnerabilities of standard remote access systems. Secure appliances such as the Dominion KX II provide out-of-band remote access without the use of hardware or software agents installed in servers or PC’s. In addition, KVM-over-IP provides BIOS-level remote access and does not depend on applications or even the operating system to be running on the server or PC being accessed.
KVM-over-IP systems are not well known by hackers, do not use standard TCP/IP ports, and have many security features. For example, strong passwords can be enforced, users can be blocked after failed login attempts, IP access control can limit access, and comprehensive user and group permissions can be set. Moreover, user access is logged and security events raised for suspicious activities.
With KVM-over-IP you can have full-featured, secure, locked-down remote access! Check out the Dominion KX II on raritan.com.
Paula Alves
February 21, 2012
Many companies have labs to develop, test, and evaluate their hardware and software products. How do you keep lab resources available 24/7, even when you are not physically there? While essential to business operations, managing these lab assets is challenging and remote access is a critical component.
Raritan’s Lab Server Management Solution provides remote and local BIOS-level access for server management and control from anywhere – in the lab, in the office, on the road, or from home – minimizing infrastructure and management costs. Lab managers can quickly and easily reboot, patch, or update servers, reducing travel costs and enhancing productivity.
For those labs that do not need 24/7 uptime and are looking to minimize energy costs, scheduling capabilities enable servers to be powered down at night and powered up in the morning. Additionally, with automated provisioning, lab managers can quickly and intelligently place lab equipment and ensure accurate asset tracking – reducing manual processes and operations costs.
For more information on how Raritan’s Lab Server Management Solution can help your business, contact your authorized Raritan representative or see our website at: https://www.raritan.com/resources/application-briefs/application-brief-lab-server-management.pdf
Dorothy Ochs
February 15, 2012
Stop by our booth at DCD Atlanta to check out our Smart-Rack Management Solution. It contains intelligent rack PDUs, environment sensors (temperature, humidity, air pressure, airflow, electronic asset tracking, energy management, and data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software.
We have a limited number of complimentary passes for end users. If you are interested, please contact marketing@raritan.com.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/conferences/2012/atlanta-2012
Paula Alves
February 9, 2012
Businesses that use kiosks such as ATMs to serve their customers have many unique support and maintenance challenges. ATMs are generally deployed at multiple locations, and across many geographical areas. Responsive and on-site support is often difficult. To ensure 24/7 secure access, energy, environmental, visual, and security controls are necessary. Remote support and management become critical to ATM operation and ROI.
Raritan’s Remote Server Management solution enables businesses to efficiently and reliably manage kiosks, from anywhere. Using remote BIOS-level access and locally mounting of drives and media, IT professionals can effectively diagnose, power cycle, and restore operations. These remote capabilities reduce travel time and operations cost.
Environmental sensor monitoring, such as temperature, humidity and airflow, ensures reliability. When a problem is identified or the need to conserve emergency power arises, load shedding and power cycling can also be performed remotely.
For more information on how Raritan’s Remote Server Management solution can help your business contact your authorized Raritan representative or see our website at: https://www.raritan.com/resources/application-briefs/application-brief-remote-server-management-for-kiosks.pdf
Richard Dominach
January 5, 2012
A new Dominion KX II model is now available - the Dominion KX2-808. The DKX2-808 enables 8 simultaneous remote/IP connections to 8 servers or PC’s. The DKX2-808 is unique among the KX II models since it provides “non-blocked” access, i.e. users can always connect to a server/PC; they are never blocked by another user. While most other KVM-over-IP switches provide some level of blocking in exchange for lower costs, the DKX2-808 features non-blocked access which is required for many situations.
The DKX2-808 ideally suited for many types of use cases. For example, a customer may have “critical servers” that must always be remotely accessible. For example, in a real-time application, say an operations center or control center, an operator may require non-blocked access to a group of servers. Many broadcast type environments also have this requirement where the user must always have access to critical servers. For development or test labs, there may also be critical servers used by a large number of people.
In other cases, the user - possibly an IT administrator or developer - may require simultaneous access to multiple servers at once. With the DKX2-808, they can have this access without affecting the productivity of other users that may be blocked from accessing other servers.
Access to blade servers is another situation ideally suited to non-blocked access. A customer can connect 8 blade server chassis to the DKX2-808 and each blade server chassis can always be remotely accessible. This prevents a user from not being able to access up to 20 individual blade servers.
Similar to this scenario is the tiering or cascading of KVM switches. In this common use case, the customer connects up to 8 other KVM switches to the DKX2-808. Since these KVM switches provide access up to 16, 32 or even 64 servers, blocking is not acceptable.
Similarly, many customers IP-enable their Raritan Paragon II switches by connecting them to a Dominion KX II. Again, since a Paragon switch can be connected to up to 64 servers, and losing access to that many servers is not desirable, the DKX2-808 is ideally suited for this application.
For customers requiring non-blocked access to a large number of servers, for example a customer wanting 64x64 or even 100x100 access, multiple DKX2-808 switches can be used together with Raritan’s CommandCenter Secure Gateway such that a large group of users can have immediate access to each and every server.
So as you can see the DKX2-808 is uniquely qualified for many common situations providing the non-blocked access required.
For more information on the Dominion KX2-808 and the other KX II models, contact your authorized Raritan representative or our website at: https://www.raritan.com/products/kvm-over-ip/dominion-kx-ii/