ATEN, Avocent roll out KVM switches for remote management

A slew of keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) products were announced last week that are aimed at making the remote management of servers easier.

ATEN International rolled out three KVM products – an 8- and 16-port KVM switch and a KVM console. Meanwhile, Avocent introduced two switches that allow concurrent use by two or eight users.

ATEN’s 8-port CL-1208 and its 16-port CL-1216 allow administrators to daisy chain as many as 31 KVM switches and manage as many as 512 servers from a single device. The CL-1200 console works with existing KVM switches and monitors all KVM switches on the network. It is rack-mountable and can be slid into the rack when not in use.

The CL-1200 Slideaway module features a 15- or 17-inch LCD monitor, keyboard and touchpad. Ports on the KVM switch can be selected through push buttons on the keyboard panel or via hotkeys or an on-screen display menu.

While the systems are available now, pricing was not immediately available.

ATEN launched a wireless KVM last April.

Avocent introduced two 32-port KVM-over-IP switches that are intended to help IT administrators more easily manage dense racks of servers.

The DSR8035 KVM over IP switch allows eight users; the DSR2035 KVM over IP switch allows two users. Both switches are managed with Avocent’s DSView 3 software. The can be used to perform file transfers, application patching and diagnostic testing by mapping the local removable media or a mass storage device to the remote server.

The switches also feature two network interfaces for redundancy and an onboard Web interface, which lets users access target servers by opening a Web browser and typing an IP address. The DSR2035 and DSR8035 also feature five USB 2.0 ports for access to keyboards, mouse and CD-ROMs or external storage.

Available now, the DSR2035 and DSR8035 cost $5,000 and $8,500, respectively.

Avocent launched its DSR1021 digital KVM switch in May.