IT Infrastructure Management Hub for Multi-Protocol Device Indexing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data centers face challenges in managing and configuring IT devices due to the complexity of tracking, clustering, and enforcing compliance and security across diverse IT devices with different communication interfaces and network protocols, leading to increased overhead and difficulty in communication.
Innovation Solution
An infrastructure management device with multiple communication interfaces, including at least 60 serial ports, that configures, discovers, clusters, indexes, and takes actions on IT devices by employing engines such as configuration/management, discovery, clustering, and action engines, using a non-volatile memory to store and retrieve device information, and interacting with various IT devices through communication interfaces like RS-232, RS-485, LAN, WAN, VPN, Wi-Fi, and USB.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple IT device concentrator hardware units and management tools are used to manage IT devices, then the ability to track and configure devices is improved, but the device complexity and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates multiple IT device concentrator hardware units and management tools into a single infrastructure management device. This device integrates device search, configuration, clustering, and management capabilities into one unified system, thereby maintaining the ability to track and configure devices while significantly reducing device complexity and overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The infrastructure management device is designed with multi-functionality, serving as both an IT device concentrator and a comprehensive management platform. It can communicate with various IT devices through multiple communication interfaces (serial ports, network interfaces) and perform multiple functions including device discovery, configuration, monitoring, and compliance enforcement, eliminating the need for separate specialized tools.
2Adaptability or versatility
If various communication interfaces and network protocols are supported to communicate with different IT devices, then the adaptability to communicate with diverse devices is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure management device incorporates multiple communication interfaces including serial ports (RS-232, RS-485) and network interfaces (LAN, WAN, VPN, Wi-Fi, USB) within a single device. This universal design enables communication with diverse IT devices using different protocols without requiring separate communication hardware for each protocol, thus maintaining adaptability while managing complexity through integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The device acts as an intermediary between the user and various IT devices with different communication interfaces. It provides a unified interface for users while handling the complexity of multiple communication protocols internally, translating and managing communications across different protocols through its multiple interfaces and processing engines.
3Device complexity
If a single infrastructure management device with high serial port count is used to manage IT devices, then the device complexity is reduced, but the productivity may be limited by the number of ports
Solution Approach 1:
The infrastructure management device transitions from managing devices solely through serial ports to incorporating multiple communication dimensions including network interfaces (LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi, USB). This dimensional expansion allows the device to connect to and manage IT devices through various communication channels simultaneously, greatly increasing productivity beyond what a high serial port count alone could achieve.
Solution Approach 2:
The device merges serial port communication with network-based communication capabilities in a single platform. By combining these different communication methods, it can manage multiple IT devices concurrently through both serial and network interfaces, thereby increasing overall productivity while maintaining reduced device complexity through unified management.
Data Source
AI summary
Infrastructure management device including at least one communications interface configured to connect to at least one IT device. The infrastructure management device further includes, one or more processors, a system memory, a system bus, and at least one non-transitory tangible machine readable medium. The non-transitory tangible machine readable medium includes instructions configured to cause at least one of the one or more processors to index IT device information that identifies at least one of the at least one IT device into an IT device index, including collecting, processing and organizing the IT device information for the at least one of the at least one IT device from the infrastructure management device.