The Power of Being There
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Case Study
Woodleigh School learns valuable lesson with Avocent remote access solution
"I would rate the SwitchView IP ten out of ten. It has certainly exceeded our expectations and I would highly recommend the device as an effective solution to manage multiple servers.”
Stephen Fraser
Director of IT Services
Woodleigh School
Woodleigh School is an independent, co-educational school located on Victoria's Mornington
Peninsula in Australia. It comprises a Junior Campus in Frankston South and a Senior
Campus in Baxter. The school is unique compared to most other traditional independent schools. As well as equipping the large majority of its students for tertiary study, it also provides other important dimensions that prepare students for the challenges of life in the twenty-first century.
Making use of the latest technology
Woodleigh School operates an innovative and dynamic IT environment. As well as core business administration, the school runs a number of Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) classroom applications and its ICT centre consists of three laboratories that are available for class and ad hoc student use. One laboratory has been specifically developed as a multimedia production laboratory. Woodleigh School boasts a sophisticated intranet portal – eWorkspace – and students have access to notebooks for class use. Work is transferred between home and school via USB memory sticks or the Intranet portal.
Managing a growing environment
“To meet the requirements of our dynamic IT infrastructure, we currently have eleven servers in mixed Netware 6.5 and Windows 2000 environments, split over the two campuses,” said Stephen Fraser, director of IT services at Woodleigh School.
“Pre-November 2003, to perform any server related activity, our technicians had to physically be in front of each server. So managing our server network was an increasing ly arduous task. I reasoned there had to be a more efficient way to manage the network.”
The SwitchView IP device adds remote access capability to any existing KVM switch. It includes
BIOS-level control of servers and the security of 128bit SSL encryption during transmissions.
The way forward
Fraser continued, “Essentially I was looking for a simple and cost-effective solution to look at the servers remotely. I knew it could be done and had clear requirements in terms of the functionality needed. It was also a core requirement that the product was not only available in Australia but supported in
Australia as well.
Unlike software remote access solutions, the
SwitchView IP remote access device does not require an agent running on each target server and does not involve licensing fees per server. Furthermore, it provides out-of-band access, so servers are available even if the network is down.
“We reviewed case studies of available solutions and compared product features.
This evaluation of competing products revealed that the Avocent solution was not only IP enabled, it was reasonably priced as well.”
The solution
Woodleigh School purchased the Avocent
SwitchView™ IP remote access device in
November 2003. It is connected to an 8-port
KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch to remotely manage eight of the eleven servers.
“We now have the ability to monitor our servers via the SwitchView IP console from our desktops and the technicians can even log in from home if required,” said Fraser.
Meeting and exceeding expectations
“The SwitchView IP was easy to set up, easy to use, stable, has markedly improved our operations and we’ve never experienced any problems with the device. It just works,”
Fraser noted. “More importantly it has increased efficiency by saving time – that ultimately saves us money.
The SwitchView IP remote access device allows the school to leverage the investment of their current KVM switch. It provides the ability to access and control servers down to their BIOS level from any location using a
Web browser.
“I would rate the SwitchView IP ten out of ten.
It has certainly exceeded our expectations and
I would highly recommend the device as an effective solution to manage multiple servers,” he concluded.
About Avocent
Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT) is the leading worldwide supplier of KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switching and connectivity solutions that provide IT managers with access and control of multiple servers and network data centre devices. Avocent was formed from the merger of the world’s two largest KVM switch manufacturers: Apex and Cybex
Computer Products Corporation. More than two decades of experience goes into Avocent KVM solutions. They are distributed by the world’s largest server manufacturers and installed in
Fortune 100 companies around the world.
Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Avocent has locations in the states of Washington,
Florida, Massachusetts, Texas and Arizona.
International locations include Australia,
Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, China and Singapore. Visit www.avocent.com.au for more information about Avocent products.
Avocent Australia
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1 800 680 086
Web www.avocent.com.au
Local
User
PCs
KVM
Switch
SwitchView IP
TCP/IP
The SwitchView IP remote access device adds remote access capability to any existing KVM switch via standard TCP/IP connectivity. With secure, browser-based access, you can have
BIOS level, console access to multiple servers anywhere, anytime.
Remote
User
4991 Corporate Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805
TEL
866.286.2368
FAX
256.430.4030
www.avocent.com
Avocent, the Avocent logo, The Power of Being There, and SwitchView are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avocent Corporation or its affiliates. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2004 Avocent Corporation.
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