OPENGEAR REVEALS OKVM SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE DEVELOPER KIT AT LINUXWORLD SAN FRANCISCO

Opengear Leads the Charge to Deliver New Wave of Open Source Infrastructure as Community Support Grows for Open Source KVM

WEST JORDAN, UTAH August 9, 2005 – Opengear Inc., a quality supplier of console server manager and KVM over IP solutions, today announced a preview of the first working prototype of its OKVM software and hardware developer kit. Opengear will demo its developer kit on August 9-11 in booth #966 at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco

Opengear’s OKVM developer kit is the first product to arise from the OKVM project (okvm.sourceforget.net), founded in October 2004 to develop open source KVM over IP and Serial over IP management platforms to enable users to build custom appliances to meet their particular remote control and central management needs. This project, the brainchild of Opengear, has experienced overwhelming support and acceptance from the open source community. Vendors and developers worldwide joined the OKVM project as early supporters and collaborators. World-class companies like Cyclades were among the first organizations to join Opengear in bringing a new wave of open source infrastructure.

The KVM over IP management software in OKVM enables secure, remote control of one or more systems from an IP-connected management system. OKVM built with an uClinux Linux kernel, embodies popular and proven Linux software modules for networking (NetFilter, IPTables), secure access (OpenSSH) and communications (OpenSSL), and user authentication (PAM, RADIUS, TACACS+ and LDAP). It also incorporates modified VNC server and client software, enabling the system or network administrator to view the screen and control the keyboard and mouse of the remote target system(s) by running VNC client software on their management system.

The KVM over IP management software requires additional hardware to capture and regenerate the Keyboard, Video and Mouse (KVM) signals. No standard, off-the-shelf KVM hardware exists and the development team wanted to avoid ASICs and expensive programmable processors, etc.

The OKVM project was built on standard PCs, which required the least amount of learning and training for other developers and integrators, and the OKVM team developed an OKVM PCI adapter with an open hardware design. By using the card to assemble a KVM over IP capable appliance from a Linux PC, the OKVM team supplies board schematics to let developers embed the design in small footprint Linux appliances.

The OKVM project’s mission is to enable developers to create broader and more interoperable IT infrastructure solutions. Whether developers are working with the RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol, VNC (Virtual Network Computing), IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface), console servers or KVM over IP, the OKVM project is a true complement to these tools and their strengths.

Tony Merenda, President of Opengear stated, “Through the OKVM project we remove boundaries making IT infrastructure management viable across all environments, including some of the most cost-sensitive locations. The result of our project collaboration will not only benefit computer-centric sites, but also non-computer-centric settings like intelligent buildings and vending machines.”

“Opengear is breaking new ground in adapting the open source software model to hardware,” said Maria Winslow, Open Source Practice Leader with Virtuas and author of The Practical Manager’s Guide to Open Source. “I think we will see increased innovation and customer choice because of their pioneering efforts.”

The OKVM team has further simplified the hardware effort by partnering with Jepico, a Japanese developer of ready-made video and image streaming graphics processors. Jepico, a lead processor manufacturer for several years, recognized the OKVM project’s value and is now participating in its first open source effort.

The core of the first OKVM PCI Adapter is the Jepico j-L201 Image processor, which captures video into frame buffer memory and couples to the host using a PCI bridge. The OKVM software modules and VNC server transmit screen changes to the remote station running a VNC client. The card also has a Microcontroller that allows the VNC server to actually transmit keyboard and mouse strokes received from the VNC client to the ports on the managed server.

“As is the case with any segment of the IT market, if you take out the proprietary hurdle then its adoption accelerates exponentially,” said Bob Waldie, CEO of Opengear. “That’s what OKVM is all about; we expect that it will be part of the accelerated adoption of out-of-band infrastructure management.”

About Opengear
Opengear’s mission is to be the leader in cost-effective, out-of-band remote control solutions by leveraging open source to make IT infrastructure management affordable at the enterprise data center and beyond.

Headquartered in West Jordan, Utah, Opengear maintains its engineering facilities in Brisbane, Australia. For more information, please call (801) 282-1387 or visit www.opengear.com

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