The VAR Guy

The next generation of console hardware would be pretty unsatisfying without modern management software to accompany it. It seems natural, then, that OpenGear has partnered with Cormant to deliver an integrated physical infrastructure solution. Here are the details:

We’ve written a lot in the past about OpenGear, which specializes in “next generation” console technologies for monitoring IT infrastructure both locally and remotely, as a company to watch closely as it continues to evolve. The VAR Guy himself earmarked OpenGear as one of the open source channel’s top 20 vendors two years and running, and only a couple months ago the company announced major growth in 2010.

Continued Expansion

The news this week is consistent with OpenGear’s tendency toward expansion. The deal with Cormant (details here), announced June 7, 2011, positions both companies to grow their business in the open source channel and elsewhere by offering a streamlined console management solution.

While OpenGear delivers the infrastructure, Cormant brings to the table tools for monitoring and documenting hardware throughout the network in the form of CableSolve. In the company’s own words:

CableSolve is a portable software application used to manage the physical communications infrastructure in any medium-to-large organization or data center. The physical communications infrastructure consists of the structured cabling system, network equipment such as switches, routers and PABXs and peripheral equipment such as PCs, printers, servers and telephones. It can also include the wide area and carrier connections to the communications equipment. In addition, CableSolve provides trouble-ticket, work order, and engineering workforce management, as well as asset tracking capabilities.

Cormant also emphasizes portability as a key selling point of CableSolve, which uses a mobile barcode-scanning device to help administrators identify and keep track of different parts of the network infrastructure.

Integration in the Open Source Channel

At a broader lever, the partnership between OpenGear and Cormant reflects the trend toward integrating hardware and software solutions within the open source channel. We’ve seen similar moves lately involving OpenLogic and MuleSoft and Liferay and Mulesoft.

These types of deals serve as reminders that the open source channel is not just about open source code itself — a reality easy to forget in an ecosystem oriented so squarely around the software, without which there could be no such thing as open source. Partnerships such as OpenGear and Cormant’s highlight the importance of delivering complete, integrated solutions within the open source channel.

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