Cyclades Offers Alternate Path

Unlike the primary “production network” that application and messaging traffic runs across, OOB networks are separate deployments of cabling meant exclusively as a backup pathway for the most basic and crucial commands—reboot, power on/off, thermostat, password, alarm, license, serial number, etc. They are rapidly becoming more affordable, and more effective.

Helping to popularize OOB server management is Cyclades, which this week introduced the AlterPath OnBoard appliance. With AlterPath OnBoard, Cyclades leverages the work of major server and chip makers that continue to improve on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard, said Daniel Dalarossa, CEO and co-founder of Cyclades, Fremont, Calif.

Unlike previous Cyclades OOB products that managed servers through KVM or serial connections, the AlterPath OnBoard appliance talks to the baseboard management controllers, or service processors, installed in every IPMI-compliant server, Dalarossa said. Servers from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others have been shipping with service processors for years, and nearly 7 million of them lay dormant, he said. This spells a huge opportunity for solution providers to deploy OOB server management that leverages service processors, he added.

Mark Halem, president of Angel Computer Network Services, Wall, N.J., said the new Cyclades appliance can make it easier for small businesses to manage mixed-vendor server networks. “Even the small customers we have, running 20 or so servers, have multiple server platforms. It&s tough for a business that size to master the different server managers from different vendors, and [OOB] brings them all under one management,” Halem said.

But the new Cyclades appliance also packs plenty of enterprise muscle, said David Gottesman, president of solution provider Technology Deployment Research, San Francisco. Gottesman sells other OOB products, but said “when it comes to complex remote access beyond just power cycling, Cyclades is the most comprehensive platform.”

Gottesman is seeing opportunities for OOB server management among Internet hosting and other server co-location facilities. Companies moving large server rooms from expensive urban cities to remote areas with lower cost per square foot is a particularly healthy market for OOB server management right now, he said.

Still, Gottesman continues to see OOB server management “filter down from the enterprise to medium-sized businesses.”

OOB server management networks can wake up servers that are dead in the water, even if their operating systems and main processors are out cold, Dalarossa said. By utilizing a path separate from the main LAN and application environment, OOB systems can reboot servers, monitor and manage temperature, power consumption, alert systems, password functions and inventory auditing, he said.

The AlterPath OnBoard appliance has a starting price of $3,000, Dalarossa said. The second layer of cabling Cyclades recommends in order to create an OOB network that is separate from the business LAN means added revenue for partners. Certified Cyclades resellers get up to 20 percent margins on the device, which increases to 30 percent when deals are registered with the vendor, Dalarossa said. Cyclades currently has just over 50 quality channel partners and intends to recruit more, he said.