Cyclades Corporation today introduced the AlterPath™ OnSite, an Out-of-Band Infrastructure (OOBI) appliance designed to provide complete remote access to IT assets located at remote sites and branch offices. The OOBI appliance extends the reach of the AlterPath System into small, remote business locations, providing IT managers with greater access and control from a single, consolidated view. The AlterPath OnSite stands apart from other branch office products by offering more access options and the industry’s highest level of integrated support for enterprise security standards.
“Remote sites often lack the backup systems installed in larger corporate data centers. As a result, a simple hardware glitch can bring down the entire remote system,” said Marcio Saito, Cyclades CTO. “The AlterPath OnSite helps ensure remote IT assets remain operational by providing a quick, flexible way to remotely restore routers, switches, firewalls, servers and other equipment at remote sites. We decrease operational costs even further by nearly eliminating the need for technicians to visit remote sites and branch offices to maintain, configure and upgrade IT assets. These operational and business benefits demonstrate our ability to deliver results that directly impact the bottom line.”
Delivering Unmatched Security, Flexibility and Control
The AlterPath OnSite offers the most complete combination of security, flexibility and control available in an out-of-band infrastructure appliance designed for remote sites. Like all Cyclades AlterPath System products, the AlterPath OnSite supports all widely used security standards and specifications. Support for server-based authentication is standard, including authentication protocols like RADIUS, TACACS+, LDAP, NIS, and Kerberos and encryption specifications like SSHv2. The AlterPath OnSite provides strong enterprise authorization features that include restricted user access lists and additional security features like IP packet and security filtering, IPsec support, and auditing support with system and event logging.
To ensure IT administrators can always access remote sites, the AlterPath OnSite provides more communications options than any other out-of-band infrastructure device designed for remote office IT administration. In addition to Ethernet connections, the AlterPath OnSite offers access through dial-up modem, CDMA and GSM wireless access and fiber access. These communications options ensure IT administrators have dependable access to each remote site.
The AlterPath OnSite allows IT administrators to remotely upgrade, configure and administer patches to routers, switches, firewalls and servers located at remote sites, nearly eliminating any need for technicians to visit remote sites for maintenance purposes. The OOBI appliance continually monitors all remotely located equipment and quickly alerts IT managers via cell phone text messages, e-mail or pager, ensuring hardware incidents are quickly addressed.
About the Out-of-Band Infrastructure (OOBI)
The Out-of-Band Infrastructure (OOBI) provides secure alternate paths into the production infrastructure so that disconnected assets can be reconnected and subsequently returned to normal operation. This infrastructure includes serial console servers, KVM analog and KVM over IP switches, intelligent power distribution units, service processor managers, and blade managers, all controlled by an OOBI manager like Cyclades AlterPath Manager.
