– David Zucker, Director of Solution Sales at Minicom (www.minicom.com), says:

Over the course of the last 5-10 years, IT organizations from the smallest of the SMB to the largest of the Enterprise have become dependent upon remote access tools to manage their servers and devices. The problem, however, is that these tools were adopted by different groups within the organization, without a clear strategy (i.e., the Windows team adopted IP KVM and RDP, while the network team bought console servers and adopted SSH).

Over time, the vast majority of IT departments have taken on in-band (i.e., RDP, VNC, SSH) and out-of-band (PDU, KVM, console) tools, as well as the service processors (ILO, DRAC, IPMI), each with their own IP addresses, passwords, usernames and more.

Today, IT managers face the challenge in managing all of these methods of access to their critical infrastructure. They *might* have a spreadsheet with all of the pathways. Others have all of this critical information on a white board, on post its or worse, in the “head” of the administrators.

This presents major issues with operational efficiency and data center security. With regard to efficiency, using a spreadsheet (or worse) means that each time an administrator is notified of an issue, he must first locate the server/device with the issue, copy and paste the IP, password and username for the selected tool just to gain access. If the first tool is ineffectual (RDP when Windows is down), he must do the same for the 2nd tool and if, for instance, the solution is powering down the server, he must do it a 3rd time for the PDU. This is not only a slow, painstaking process, but one that opens the door to human error.

The 2nd major issue with the current state of remote access management is security. When all of the passwords, IPs and usernames to an organization’s critical infrastructure are in a spreadsheet or in someone’s head, you are just begging for trouble. These pathways allow access to the most sensitive data in an organization, but they are not currently being treated that way. To ensure the security of a data center’s servers and devices, a RAM solution that locks down this critical information must be adopted.

With AccessIT, a data center can drastically increase how quickly his users can access and remediate issues on their servers and devices, all while utilizing the tools and hardware currently deployed, all while improving security and locking down remote access.

The complexities and challenges associated with Remote Access Management (RAM) are typically overlooked by IT managers. Any ITIL or disaster recovery plan undertaken by an IT department is not complete without considering how to deal with managing and controlling the remote access to your data center and IT equipment.

Remote Access has become a standard, but was deployed without a clear plan. With so many tools acquired over time, it has become increasingly difficult to track and manage access. IT Managers want to deploy a RAM solution, but for the most part, these solutions are extremely costly, require fork lifting legacy hardware, and cause an enormous disruption (i.e., shut down of servers to change out PDUs). This has led many to deem that the status quo (spreadsheet, homegrown tools, etc.) will have to do. But the problem still persists.

This is what makes AccessIT so unique. IT managers can gain the security and efficiency increases that RAM affords, without the cost, rip and replace and disruption of competitive products.

By implementing AccessIT DC managers can gain the benefits of RAM very quickly, without the cost and disruption associated with competitive products.

IT Managers must consider the architecture of the remote access management system. Is it an open system that will allow you to adopt technologies from other vendors easily or is it a closed system that locks you in to that vendor? An IT manager must also consider the easy of installation and operation of a system. Many companies will promise to do everything but the complexity of implementing these systems and the overhead required to maintain them can quickly overcome the intended benefits.