Avocent

Avocent Corporation

Type	Wholly Owned Subsidiary
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Huntsville, Alabama, United States
Key people	Steve Hassell, President
Products	KVM switches, serial consoles, IT infrastructure products
Website	www.EmersonNetworkPower.com

Avocent, a business of Emerson Network Power, is an information-technology products manufacturer headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. Avocent formed in 2000 from the merger of the world's two largest manufacturers of KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) equipment: Apex and Cybex Computer Products Corporation. As of August 2006, the company employed more than 1,800 people worldwide.

On October 6, 2009, it was announced that Emerson Electric would buy Avocent for $1.2 billion USD. The tender was finalized on December 11, resulting in Avocent becoming part of Emerson Network Power, a division of Emerson Electric.^[1]

Product range

Avocent focuses on out-of-band infrastructure management solutions within seven major fields:

1. Server management
2. Power management
3. Service-processor management
4. Console-server management
5. KVM management
6. IPMI solutions for OEM partners
7. A wide range of embedded-software solutions
8. Desktop management
9. ITIL market
10. IT service management

Avocent's product development has spanned three eras:

1. the growth of the analog KVM switch - paralleling the growth of server architecture in the data center
2. the growth of the digital KVM switch - enabling the remote control of geographically dispersed data-centers
3. the diversification and “management” phase (revolving around the acquisition of LANDesk (2006) and Touchpaper software (2008) and the capabilities they provide)

Acquisitions

Avocent's history of acquisitions includes:

• 2001 - Equinox Systems, the makers of various serial communications devices.
• 2002 - 2C Computing, which focused on PCI-bus extension, suitable to remotely connect office users to datacenter-housed PCs.
• 2003 - Soronti, Inc., makers of KVM over IP technology.
• 2004 - Crystal Link Technologies, OSA Technologies, Inc.,^[2] and Sonic Mobility, Inc.
• 2006 - Cyclades Corporation and LANDesk Software.
• 2008 - Touchpaper Software and Ergo 2000, an LCD rack-based console maker.

References

1. "Information for Our Investors". Avocent.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
2. Splashtop Instant-On Desktop from DeviceVM

External links

• Avocent's MergePoint Embedded Management SoftwareIPMI firmware implementation