Avocent, a business of
Vertiv, is an information-technology products manufacturer headquartered in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...
. 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
Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for industrial, commercial, and consumer marke ...
would buy Avocent for $1.2 billion
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
. The tender was finalized on December 11, resulting in Avocent becoming part of
Emerson Network Power, a division of
Emerson Electric
Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for industrial, commercial, and consumer marke ...
. On August 2, 2016, Emerson announced an agreement to sell Network Power to Platinum Equity. On December 1, 2016, Emerson Network Power announced they were rebranding under the name
Vertiv and appointing Rob Johnson as CEO.
Product range
Avocent focuses on
out-of-band infrastructure management within seven major fields:
# Server management
#
Power management
Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power ...
# Service-processor management
#
Console-server management
#
KVM management
#
IPMI for
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
partners
# A wide range of
embedded-software
#
Desktop management
#
ITIL
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
ITIL d ...
market
#
IT service management
Information technology service management (ITSM) is the activities that are performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers.
Differing from more technology-or ...
Avocent's product development has spanned three eras:
# the growth of the analog KVM switch - paralleling the growth of server architecture in the data center
# the growth of the digital KVM switch - enabling the remote control of geographically dispersed data-centers
# the diversification and “management” phase (revolving around the acquisition of
LANDesk
Ivanti () is an IT software company headquartered in South Jordan, Utah, United States. It produces software for IT Security, IT Service Management, IT Asset Management, Unified Endpoint Management, Identity Management and Supply Chain Managemen ...
(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.,
Splashtop Instant-On Desktop from DeviceVM
and Sonic Mobility, Inc.
* 2006 - and LANDesk Software.
* 2008 - Touchpaper Software and Ergo 2000, an LCD rack-based console maker.
References
Companies based in Huntsville, Alabama
Electronics companies of the United States
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