One of the positive signs of company growth is the proliferation of branch
office and additional remote locations. This growth is clearly to be welcomed,
but also can present great challenges to IT teams.
In addition to
controlling business data centres and functions, IT teams are increasingly
taking on the additional responsibility of managing and repairing branch office
hardware such as routers, switches, firewalls, WAN optimisers and
servers.
Employees working in these remote locations generally are not
employed with IT skills in mind, and so often there are no individuals available
to manage any problems which arise.
To overcome this challenge, many IT
teams use remote diagnostic software to diagnose and repair branch office
problems.
In addition to such software, Keyboard, Video, Mouse
switches A major snag with
such tools is that they are only useful if the operating systems and network are
functioning. If the network or operating system is down, an on-site employee
might be asked to go to the server room/location and deal with the problem. If
that doesn't work, then additional costs in travel, time, and lost business is
very likely to be the result.
Thus, in addition to regular remote
diagnostic software and skills, it becomes important to plan for such
eventualities.
If the system failure requires an update to the network
driver, network configuration on a server, or any operating system reboot or
patch, then it is not possible to use a network-based server or network-based
application to complete the task. This is where so called "Out-of-Band" access
and control tools should be understood and considered.
Out-of-Band (OOB)
technologies can provide an alternate method for accessing and restoring failed
equipment on any network system. This is done essentially because OOB
technologies provide the capability to eliminate any dependency on the main or
control network. By using a comprehensive alternative OOB network (which is made
up of serial products, consoles, switches and a management platform) ,
organizations are able to achieve greater reliability for their IT - in-house
and remote - assets, while bringing greater productivity to the main
network.
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Jimi St. Pierre writes for several Office
Equipment suppliers and Travel Companies in the UK, including Principal. Office
automation and IT
consultancy services are described in detail at ==>> http://www.principalcorp.co.uk
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
