Altusen To Introduce High-End KVMs, With Channel Program To Support Them

The company, based here, is a spin-off of Aten, a vendor of midrange KVM switches, said Jan DeSantis, who was just hired as sales manager. "Aten needed a high-end division for specific new products," she said.

Altusen plans to focus its sales efforts exclusively on the channel and at Comdex Fall plans to unveil details of its channel program, said DeSantis.

The program will be aimed at channel partners involved in high-end network design and implementation and will have three tiers, DeSantis said. Solution providers that commit to $100,000 in KVM purchases yearly from Altusen will be enrolled in the Silver level, with $250,000 in purchase making them eligible for Gold level and $500,000 for Platinum level, she said.

All solution providers will be eligible for 50 percent pricing on demo units, priority tech support, flexible payment terms, online training, express return authorization and extended warranty support, said DeSantis.

In addition, Gold-level solution providers get access to qualified leads from Altusen sales reps, who will make customer calls but turn all customers over to VARs, DeSantis said. Such solution providers will also have access to market development funds. Platinum-level partners will also get access to in-house training either at the partner's facilities or at customer sites, she said.

Altusen is currently shipping one product, the K9000, a KVM switch that can be accessed from a LAN or WAN or via the Internet for remote network management, said DeSantis. List price is $4,495.

At Comdex Fall, the company will introduce a 16-port KVM switch with built-in LCD monitor that fits in 1U of rack-mount space, DeSantis said. List price is expected to be about $4,495.

Also being shown at Comdex will be a 32-port matrix switch that can be daisy-chained or cascaded to monitor up to 4,096 servers, said DeSantis. List price per switch is expected to be $4,495.

The company will also show a 32-port switch with two-level password support, Flash upgradability, and support for monitors with resolution of up to 1,920 x 1,440, said DeSantis. With daisy-chaining or cascading, it can monitor networks of up to 512 servers, she said. List price is expected to be $1,495.

The three products to be demonstrated at Comdex are expected to ship by year-end, DeSantis said.