subject: A Short History Of Out Of Band Management [print this page] A Short History Of Out Of Band Management
Out of band management is one tiny feature within the world of computer networking, but it makes all the rest possible. In the beginning, a computer was a huge and powerful calculator for crunching numbers. Before too long, however, engineers started to connect computers together. Two computers linked offers twice the computing power. Because binary information does not degrade as it is passed from machine to machine, it soon became apparent that linking many computers together was great way to achieve new and powerful communication tools.
Suddenly the nature of information sharing changed: computer networking had arrived. Because computers were very big and expensive, this technology was originally utilized only by governments and universities. By the early 1980s, however, big companies started to realize the potential advantages of utilizing linked networks, and the technology began to rapidly advance. Within a few years, embryonic versions of the internet would start to appear, and the rest is history. It represents nothing less than the most dramatic revolution in communication ever.
Behind this grand drama are thousands of tiny technologies like the development of out of band management. Let us go back a moment to those early days when remote connection was new. By this time, technicians had developed ways to transmit data without cables, instead using modem and ethernet technology. Networks were run through console servers that linked the various components together and allowed access for engineers who maintained the system. It was greatly lauded at the time that these engineers could access a remote system instantly from anywhere in the world, but there was a problem. Often when there was a tangle in the network and things stopped working, the technicians were as locked-out as everyone else was. How could they access the network using the data channels that were not working?
The solution was quite simple, but it made all the rest possible. These days it is called out of band management. At the connection point for any network, which is most often at a device called a console server, there is installed a separate channel that is completely independent of the data stream. Even if a network is not working because of a malfunctioning server, faulty connection; even if the device is switched off, an out of band channel allows technicians to remotely monitor the system and potentially diagnose and repair the problem. This simple solution allows servers to function by remote so that a network is not limited by its physical location.
The first out of band management devices were simply an external modem that allowed restricted access to the network. As the technology evolved, these devices became more complex and more reliable, offering more complete access to more devices. These days, the technology is indispensable for many companies that employ huge interconnected networks of thousands or hundreds of thousands of assets all over the world. Like many of the other parts and pieces of modern technology, out of band management is a simple idea but it has opened up grand new vistas in the world of network computing.
