As your company grows you realize that you need to process data faster so as to give your clients all the information they need in a timely fashion. This need often compels a company to obtain more computers and servers but which take up more of the company’s available space and also take a toll on its present staff. All these complications should inform the management of the need to make more investments so as to be able to better manage the added infrastructure. A centralized system for managing the whole IT framework will be the best choice for such a scenario and luckily such a solution exists in KVM switches whereby KVM stands for keyboard, video and mouse.
With a KVM switch you can expect to make monetary savings because you will no longer need to purchase separate sets of monitor, mouse and keyboards for each and every computer or server on your network. This further translates into space savings because with a KVM switch the single monitor, mouse and keyboard, as well as all the servers can be bundled onto a single rack. With regards to today’s business trends whereby more people are opting to buy their products online and whereby companies are demanding for their information faster and in the right format, KVM switches are fast becoming an indispensable part of efficient IT department management.
There are various ways through which to connect a KVM switch to all the computers we have onsite. One of these involves the use of Cat5 or CAT6 twisted pair cables, and which are suitable for controlling equipment up to 40 meters away. IP address-based KVM switches ability were introduced recently and they enable administrators to interact with servers remotely via the internet. Other switches feature USB capability implying that making connections is now easier and faster. For video we can use a DVI-D/VGA connector dongle, and it can also be the db-15VGA/USB for KB or MS. KVM switches are really size-efficient; picture the compactness of a switch with up to 32 ports and occupying only 1U rackmount space.
KVM switches have a multiplatform design, meaning that they can handle computers and servers based on multiple platforms such as Dell, HP, MAC, IBM, SUN, Linux, Unix, Windows and Netware. These switches are also easy to use in that you just need to press the KVM buttons on the screen display to switch from server to the next. The KVM Switches buttons are well abbreviated and as such you can easily identify whatever server you are working on. Most respectable switches feature the multilingual option on their screen display menus, and they also allow for the creation of user profiles and OSD hot key combinations.
Space can be further be conserved with the use of rackmount consoles with TFT or LED screens instead of CRT screens. TFT and/or LED screens may also feature touch-screen capability and which will be an added advantage.
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