Opengear - Experts & Thought Leaders

Opengear, a provider of solutions that deliver secure, resilient network access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, announced the general availability of the Opengear NetOps AutomationTM platform. Today’s release provides enterprises with a complete and centralised management solution for achieving vendor-neutral automation of NetOps workflows. The NetOps Automation platform is built on a network of distributed Opengear management devices that enable presence and proximity at each of an organisation’s network locations. Enterprises can automate critical workflows via the Lighthouse centralised management system, running containerised NetOps modules that provide specialised functionality for making business processes even easier to abstract, implement, and automate. A Secure Provisioning module and a LogZillaTM module for event management are now available, with additional modules under development. Automating configuration management The Secure Provisioning NetOps Module utilises Opengear’s new OM2200 Operations Manager “The NetOps Automation platform is driven by the desire of our enterprise customers to automate repetitive and error-prone activities both in the data centre and at remote locations,” said Gary Marks, CEO, Opengear. “It’s a natural progression from our existing presence in the network infrastructure, where they rely on us to provide always-on access with smart out-of-band management. This innovative new solution provides that same level of resilience and convenience beyond out-of-band, as these organisations embrace the NetOps philosophy to streamline their processes and reduce human intervention.” The Secure Provisioning NetOps Module utilises Opengear’s new OM2200 Operations Manager to completely automate the initial provisioning, configuration management, re-provisioning, and disaster recovery of remote infrastructure. The OM2200 is built into the initial rack shipped to a branch office or other remote site and, once powered on, will call home using its embedded cellular module (which is secured and protected from tampering by TPM safeguards). Centralised network management We’re excited to have LogZilla as our first NetOps Automation platform ecosystem partner"Lighthouse 5 then automatically pushes image, configuration, and script files to the OM2200, which in turn provisions other hardware devices at the location. This completes the secure, zero-touch provisioning of local network infrastructure from a single appliance – and with no IT intervention required. “The automated provisioning and centralised network management capabilities offered by the NetOps Automation platform serve an increasingly critical need, as enterprises scale and expand their infrastructure to meet ever-increasing demands on network capacity,” said Marcio Saito, CTO, Opengear. “We’re excited to have LogZilla as our first NetOps Automation platform ecosystem partner, with its powerful event data management and analytics module proving the platform’s incredible potential. We look forward to future opportunities to add modules alongside further partners as well.” Real-time network intelligence and analytics The LogZilla NetOps Module – a second module releasing today for use with Opengear’s NetOps Automation platform – was produced through a new partnership between Opengear and LogZilla. The module offers integration with LogZilla’s flagship event management solution to deliver real-time network intelligence and analytics, always-on monitoring, and forensics (even during network outages). Coupled with Opengear’s local appliances, this module improves enterprises’ network resiliency and reduces the mean-time-to-repair and total cost of ownership across network equipment. The LogZilla event preduplicationTM and forwarding engine can run locally at remote sitesLogZilla’s solution allows organisations to consolidate multiple servers traditionally required to maintain effective management system logs, and instead run them solely through Opengear’s NetOps Automation platform. Additionally, the LogZilla event preduplicationTM and forwarding engine can run locally at remote sites when deployed onto OM2000 appliances. Reducing cost of ownership “This partnership between Opengear and LogZilla delivers a Network Operations module perfectly aligned to the current needs of enterprise customers and industries we serve,” said Clayton Dukes, CEO, LogZilla. “We remain committed to reducing the total cost of ownership of network equipment by fostering a natural synergy with what Opengear’s accomplished through its NetOps Automation system. We’re excited by the possibilities of this offering, and see this as the first of many collaborations with Opengear.” The Opengear NetOps Automation platform includes the OM2200 appliance, along with a subscription-based license for Lighthouse 5 and individual NetOps modules, and is available through Opengear’s reseller partners

Opengear, a provider of solutions that deliver secure, resilient network access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, today announced CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd, a Finnish center of expertise in Information and Communications Technology, has deployed Opengear Smart out-of-band appliances to streamline a major upgrade project and improve day-to-day remote management. CSC, a non-profit organisation with 70% ownership by the state of Finland and 30% controlled by Finnish higher education institutions provides services for research, education, culture, public administration and enterprises, to help them thrive and benefit society at large.  CSC's primary customers are the Ministry of Education and Culture and organisations within its field of operations, higher education and research institutes and public administration sector. Planned network upgrade As Antti Ristimaki, Senior Network Specialist for CSC explains, "Getting from our data centres to some of the sites we look after might take many hours and so having remote out-of-band access is vital for us." CSC has used a legacy out-of-band (OOB) console server solution for several years, but with a major network upgrade planned for 2018-2020 it was decided that more flexibility was needed to help the small networking team support clients at around 40 sites spread across the country. "What we liked most about Opengear was its small footprint and high-quality software along with the 4G mobile connectivity option which provides us with the option to deploy the OOB console server at site before we have any working in-band access," says Ristimaki. Setting up the devices took very little time and we are now remotely managing the process" Remotely configure networking equipment CSC has already deployed Opengear ACM7004-5-LMR - Resilience Gateway appliances at around 10 locations across the country, which were initially used to help remotely configure networking equipment at sites connecting to its newly upgraded backbone network. Having a remote access server at distant locations makes it easier to reliably commission and configure new network equipment from its main offices at Espoo and Kajaani. At the final stage, there will be around 40 Opengear Resilience Gateway appliances across the country. "Setting up the devices took very little time and we are now remotely managing the process - which has proved surprisingly simple using 4G LTE and even 3G connections," Ristimaki adds.  Built-in CLI tools The built-in CLI tools provided by the Opengear software have proven to be useful especially when commissioning the console server itself. Through this accessibility, CSC has integrated the management of its Opengear Smart OOB devices into its own internally developed network management and orchestration platform based on Ansible. CSC is also using Opengear to help record, and in the event of any problems, rollback critical firmware upgrades and configuration changes for core networking elements at remote sites.

Opengear, a provider of solutions that deliver secure, resilient network access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, announces its integrated NetOps Automation platform that will offer enterprises a full-featured network automation solution to significantly streamline network and infrastructure operations. Opengear is announcing the beta availability of the solution at Cisco Live, Cisco’s annual IT and communications conference, held June 10-14 in Orlando, Florida. Attendees are invited to learn more by visiting Opengear at booth #1527. NetOps Automation platform As the popularity and adoption of NetOps evolves, its inherent network virtualization carries increased risk to data center infrastructure and heightens the need to correctly provision, configure, remediate, and automate distributed networks. With the NetOps Automation platform, Opengear builds on its cellular-enabled out-of-band access, monitoring, and remediation to now provide secure, automated, and vendor-neutral network provisioning, remote configuration, and orchestration purpose-built for NetOps use cases. The NetOps Automation platform leverages expanded capabilities within Opengear’s award-winning Lighthouse 5 centralized management system, and a growing array of NetOps module applications. It also introduces the new OM2000 Operations Manager, in combination with Opengear’s existing solutions for network resilience. Opengear’s Smart OOB and Failover to Cellular technologies to reach devices even when the main network connection is down Lighthouse 5 Opengear’s Lighthouse 5 centralized management software aggregates an organization’s entire out-of-band infrastructure, enabling local or remote users to quickly and securely access any connected console via an HTTPS web interface or SSH connection. Opengear’s remote management solutions provide Lighthouse 5 with this access, utilizing embedded cellular connectivity within Opengear’s Smart OOB and Failover to Cellular technologies to reach devices even when the main network connection is down. Task-specific NetOps modules The first of Opengear’s task-specific NetOps modules – the Secure Provisioning module that allows enterprises to provision infrastructure at remote sites through an automated process and without any need for on-site technicians – is available in beta today and is targeted for general release in September 2018. Other modules will follow. The NetOps Automation platform utilizes a fully open architecture, including a Git-based file repository within Lighthouse 5, Ansible integration to provide orchestration and enable automated IT workflows, a RESTful API, Docker integration, and a Linux software base. OM2000 also allows teams to run applications on the appliance or on Lighthouse 5 using Docker containers OM2000 Operations Manager With the OM2000 Operations Manager, Opengear is introducing the first appliance specifically designed to address the unique challenges created by the evolution of NetOps practices. The central feature of the OM2000 is a cryptographic TPM chip that ensures security by detecting and preventing tampering with the hardware, firmware, software, configurations, or VPN keys. The OM2000 also allows teams to run applications on the appliance or on Lighthouse 5 using Docker containers, which make it easy to deploy and run applications at the network edge. “The NetOps Automation platform is designed to give enterprises with large networks a clear, reliable, and secure way to achieve full network automation every single time, and avoid the need for experienced network staff at every location” said Marcio Saito, CTO, Opengear. “By combining Lighthouse 5, the OM2000 Operations Manager and our Secure Provisioning NetOps module, along with standard Opengear appliances, businesses can now ship critical hardware to locations with no IT staff or network connectivity.” “They can then connect to it via the embedded cellular connection, and manage automated provisioning that gets that site up and running with no further intervention required. We believe this will give many more organizations what they need to vastly simplify their network and infrastructure operations.”