A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
What goes around comes around
In 1861 when British author Isabella Mary Beeton wrote, ‘A place for everything
and everything in its place’, she had no way of knowing that those words of
advice on managing a household could someday be applied to today’s high-tech
server rooms. Long & Foster Realtors, the largest privately-owned real estate
company in America, literally took Mrs. Beeton’s words to heart when they
conducted an overhaul of their data center and KVM switching system.
Technology leader for the real estate industry
With 212 offices located throughout seven states in the Mid-Atlantic region, one
of the company’s goals is to be a technology leader for their industry. Part of
that leadership goal includes moving from analog KVM to a digital IP-based KVM
switching system. “Our enterprise consists of over 100 servers in our data center;
a simple analog KVM solution is inadequate,” explained Chris Saben, network
architect and data center manager for Long & Foster. “With the sheer number of
servers we were running, it was a mess. When you looked at the full data center
there were bundles and bundles of cable everywhere.”
Company
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
Location
Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.
Type of business
Real Estate
Web site
www.longandfoster.com
The Long & Foster data center houses approximately 116 servers primarily
running Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT systems. To consolidate
space, gain remote access, and increase physical security, Long & Foster
upgraded to the Avocent DSR2161 KVM over IP switching system with DS
management software including DSView™.
“Digital KVM has a price, but the Avocent switches pay
for themselves quickly in the reduction of risk to your
data center and the servers. We like them so much we
installed them at our co-location facilities and have
full BIOS access to our machines. Anyone who knows
servers knows the benefit of that.”
– Chris Saben, Network Architect Data Center Manager,
Long & Foster Realtors
“It’s a beautiful thing when you’re at home and you can’t get in through PC
Anywhere but you can get in with the DSView software,” Saben said. “It increases
our productivity by keeping people from moving around the building; it allows
me to keep people out ofthe data center and gives us full BIOS-level access to
perform repairs.”
A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
Reducing complexity, saving rack space
Flexibility and regaining valuable space were also important to
Saben. “We were growing so much that it became a burden to
maintain a large, analog KVM system,” he said. “With the KVM over
IP address, everything was built off the network with no additional
complexity. And it saves us rack space because it’s a one U box
whereas it was four U with the analog system. It plugs right in and
you’re done.”
Impressed with KVM benefits
Saben noted that they are pleased with their upgrade and the
initial success has prompted them to investigate adding a console
concentrator in the future. “It’s meeting and exceeding our business
needs,” concluded Saben. “We are limiting traffic to the data center
and getting higher productivity from our workers, who have full
console access. I don’t have to think about it and that’s the biggest
compliment. It just works.”
Physical security was also an issue. As many as 30 people travel
through the center each day, and a large portion of them are trying
to access the servers. “There’s a risk involved with having so many
people walk through the data center,” said Saben. “They’re bumping
into things, turning things off, etc. Avoiding that is a huge benefit.
Long & Foster CIO Michael Koval is also highly impressed with the
benefits of Avocent’s switching system. “Long & Foster provides the
most robust IS support in the real estate business, and Avocent offers
a substantial value proposition, in terms of performance and cost,
that helps Long & Foster to expand its lead in the industry.”
“Digital KVM has a price, but the Avocent switches pay for
themselves quickly in the reduction of risk to your data centers and
the servers. They’re very reliable. We like them so much we installed
them at our co-location facilities and have full BIOS access to our
machines. Anyone who knows servers knows the benefit of that.”
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