Out Of Band Management

By far, SNMP (the Simple Network Management Protocol) network management is the industry choice for managing wide area and local area networks. This is In Band Management access via the network. SNMP is easy to use and inexpensive. It has however one inherent weakness: SNMP management information travels the same network path as your data. It uses the same WAN and LAN routers, hubs and communication links. Communication is subject to interception and the same problems that your network is currently having. When the network goes down or is severely disrupted, SNMP traffic has no way to get between the managed device and the management workstation. Quite often when a "Network Element" goes down, it loses its network connection, which renders In Band Management useless. This is where Out Of Band Management is used.

This series of products will enable technicians to perform maintenance operations without the security risks of In Band Management, while always having the guaranteed access of Out Of Band Management. Access is even possible when the network or the "Network element" is down. All communication can be fully encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The product line also has In Band Management capabilities for applications that require this.