Lantronix, Inc. has announced the worldwide availability of the USB I/O module for the Lantronix SLC 8000 — the industry's first modular console manager. The USB I/O module leverages the modular design of the Lantronix SLC 8000, allowing IT professionals to easily support a variety of interface combinations including RS-232 and USB for secure out-of-band management.

"With its high density USB console support in a first-of-its-kind modular form factor, Lantronix' SLC 8000 console manager has proven to be an ideal solution for enhancing our test lab and engineering efforts," said Bill Yang, manager of software development engineering for Cisco Systems. "The Lantronix SLC 8000 was easy to deploy, and provided a flexible solution to our test set-ups — enabling our geographically-distributed test labs to collaborate more efficiently and effectively."

Lantronix SLC 8000 provides IT managers with future-proof critical infrastructure management capabilities. In addition, the company recently announced a new firmware version 7.2.0.0 that is compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2. FIPS 140-2 is a security standard for IT systems that is mandatory for U.S. and Canadian government and military applications that use cryptographic-based security. This robust encryption is also suitable in finance, healthcare and other commercial applications where protection of privacy is critical.

"In a market comprised of many console server products, Lantronix has differentiated itself in today's IT infrastructure space with the USB I/O module for their new SLC 8000 console manager," said Doris Yeh, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Alliances for Mirapath — a datacenter and lab infrastructure solution provider. "We believe the SLC 8000, with its modular design, latest firmware enhancements, USB support and seamless integration with the Lantronix vSLM™ centralized management platform, fills a much needed gap in the market."

"Modern IT equipment being introduced into the global market have both RS-232 (Serial) and USB console ports or only USB console ports, making it necessary for out-of-band management devices to support any combination of these connections without requiring forklift or rip-and-replace upgrades," said Vishal Kakkad, director of product marketing for Lantronix. "The Lantronix SLC 8000 delivers exactly that and helps data center managers reduce downtime and operational costs with robust features that can scale within any network deployment and policy architecture."

The Lantronix SLC 8000 advanced modular console manager provides out-of-band management that allows IT personnel of any size enterprise to centrally manage, monitor and troubleshoot IT equipment locally or from anywhere over the network. An optional dial-up modem or cellular gateway is also available to provide out-of-band access if the network is down. This reduces downtime and increases response efficiency so that IT incidents are resolved quickly and with minimal or zero network disruption. The modular form factor of the SLC 8000 console manager allows easy scalability allowing users to reduce their total cost of ownership by simply adding or replacing modules as needed, while providing flexibility to support a custom combination of serial console interfaces. 

The SLC 8000 Advanced Console Manager also:

  • Reduces operating costs and security risks by eliminating the need for truck rolls or on-site interventions.
  • Provides multiple layers of out-of-band access including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, dialup and cellular technologies.
  • Simplifies service deployments and balances CAPEX and OPEX with its modular design.
  • Enables custom "mix-and-match" configurations with USB and RS-232 (RJ45) device port modules.
  • Minimizes cable clutter with software-reversible device port pins.
  • Protects management interfaces with authentication and FIPS 140-2 compliant security.
  • Simplifies service deployments with quick expansion and customization.
  • Increases testing productivity and efficiency as a DUT ("device under test") aggregator.
  • Integrates seamlessly with the Lantronix vSLM™ central management software.