Avocent Branches Out Into Remote Software

Avocent, Huntsville, Ala., introduced MobileSentinel, which allows wireless handheld devices to be centrally managed, said Derek Ball, director of business development for mobile solutions at the company.

Avocent, better known as a manufacturer of hardware such as keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) devices for managing data centers, also rolled out AdminSentinel, which allows data-center administrators to control their data-center tasks remotely via their handheld devices, including Palm OS-based, Windows-based and Research In Motion's BlackBerry units.

Kevin Baldwin, president of Enterprise Control Systems, a Seattle-based solution provider focusing on data-center infrastructures, applauded Avocent's new software focus. "The fact the software is being [brought out] as an Avocent product gives me the opportunity as a VAR/integrator to take it to my customer and say, 'Look, here's something new,' " he said.

MobileSentinel targets the problems many companies face with unmanaged wireless devices, Ball said. The software allows administrators to remotely lock a device or wipe out memory if the device is lost, stolen or sold in order to prevent sensitive information from leaving the company. "For instance, if a doctor keeps patient information on a device and [the device] gets lost, it's a big problem," he said. "You have to be able to wipe out the data."

MobileSentinel also prevents any applications that is not on a company-approved white list from being downloaded onto a wireless device to protect the devices from crashes or lockups caused by unauthorized software and to help stop mobile viruses, Ball said.

AdminSentinel, which debuted as an Avocent-branded product, allows management of a network and its equipment from anywhere using a mobile device, Ball said.

It allows administrators to perform tasks such as rebooting servers, changing user passwords, controlling runaway processes, and starting and stoping servers.

As such, it is a nice parallel product for Avocent's KVM switches, or it can be used as a stand-alone product, Ball said. "Avocent has been telling customers they can manage their networks from anywhere," he said. "Now they mean it."

Baldwin said he is not sure how easy it is to manage a data center using a handheld device with a 2-inch screen. "For example, if your objective is to reboot a server, you need to go to a menu," Baldwin said. "If there are 250 servers in the data center, you have to go to a list of 250 servers, find [the server] on the screen and reboot. Then it's difficult to see what's going on," he said. "There are practical issues when going from a 21-inch screen to a 2-inch screen."

Even so, AdminSentinel can be a good value-add for his customers, Baldwin said. "AdminSentinel gives Avocent an edge," he said.