ILS Technology has introduced the Virtual Service Infrastructure application suite, which provides a visualization and presentation layer for OEMs or operations managers needing to remotely manage devices.
VSI is a vendor-neutral device management solution that works with wired Ethernet, wireless 802.11b/g, or cellular networks, providing a link into intelligent devices located off premises. Using technology from ILS’ existing deviceWISE software, which provides direct connectivity between plant floor devices and enterprise applications, and ILS’ secureWISE hardware/software solution for securing transfers of remote data, VSI provides a dual-function architecture that enables both data collection and device interaction.
In addition, a VSIadministrator application gives users authorized, controlled, and traceable direct access to managed computing devices in order to perform preventive maintenance, remediation, and upgrades. Information is displayed in a browser-enabled dashboard — accessible even from an iPhone — that provides the presentation and monitoring layer that had been missing from the existing VSI solution, which ILS acquired when it bought ComBrio Inc. in 2008.
“We’ve had the [communications] pipe, but people had to build their own applications,” said ILS President and CEO Fred Yentz at a press conference at the ARC Advisory Group’s World Industry Forum this week. Alternatively, users would have to turn to enterprise management applications, such as IBM Tivoli or Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView. “We needed to add visualization and dashboards for the people who don’t need the enterprise class of product,” he said.