In today’s world, everyone is online, computer literate and IT savvy – Universities are no exception. From application, to enrolment, acceptance, submission of coursework and examinations, right through to graduation, thousands of students depend on the University network being up and running at all times.

All of the 168 Universities in the UK, serving over 2.3 million students (Germany has 1.9 million students, USA has 14.5 million students, France has 2.1 million students) provide computer resources for its students, faculty and administrative staff.

Confidential student information, lecturer and professor information, sensitive research data, enrolment information, internal communications and other business applications, running on tens of thousands of PC’s and peripherals, need to be managed and accessed by the Network Administrators.

This equates to tens of thousands of distributed IT assets, spread over several halls, campuses, cities and even countries. Universities often have multiple data centres, labs and equipment closets in multiple buildings. In addition, there is heating/cooling, security and phone equipment to be managed. Students and staff depend on this infrastructure, and require a 24-hour service by the Network Administrators. Office hours are out of the window.

The challenges for the Network Support Teams are numerous, including:

• Minimising downtime
• Monitoring uptime
• Keeping service costs under control
• Securing remote access to server rooms and on-site data centres
• Recovery of remote systems and peripherals
• Maximising security levels to prevent hacker attacks, and enable secure login and sensitive information transfer

Perle’s range of secure console servers provide an ideal solution for remote access and problem diagnosis/analysis for schools, colleges, and universities. They enable secure connections to IT equipment from anywhere at any time. Authentication (RADIUS, TACACS+, LDAP, Kerberos, NIS and RSA Security’s SecurID tokens) and encryption (Secure Shell (SSH) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)) protect vital and sensitive information on the school’s network. Many problems can be resolved remotely without sending a technician on-site, thereby saving costs and resources.

Console Servers additionally offer the following features and benefits, important to the management of University network infrastructure:

• Available in 8, 16, 32 and 48 RS232 port models
• Next Generation IP support ( IPv6 ) for investment protection and network compatibility
• AES, 3DES encryption over SSH or SSL sessions
• Hardware encryption processor for optimal performance
• Dual Ethernet with Redundant Path technology for network redundancy
• Secure clustering with one IP address
• Powerful authentication schemes prevent unauthorised access
• Port buffering for data capture and analysis – local, NFS or encrypted NFS
• Multi-session capability gives secure port access rights for multiple users
• Access Serial ports via web browser
• Event notification via email / Syslog / SNMP
• Optional integrated modem card / PC card adapter (GSM, ISDN)
• RoHS and WEEE compliant
• Perle Lifetime warranty for security and peace of mind

The outcome

Console Management Solutions from Perle help maximise uptime by enabling IT managers to centrally manage the University network infrastructure, ensure connectivity to enterprise-network equipment even when the network is down, protect the Universities assets through secure access and lower overall network-management costs.

Serial to Ethernet Solutions

Console Servers / Data center management
Our wide range of 1 to 48 port Perle Console Servers provide data center managers with secure remote management of any device with a console port. Plus, the only truly fault tolerant Console Servers on the market.