Microsoft Gains End-to-End Control of Thames Valley Data Center with Avocent Management Solution

Avocent Corporation (Nasdaq: AVCT), a global leader in IT operations management, today announced that Microsoft has opted to use an Avocent hardware, software and services data management solution to manage its Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) Thames Valley facility. The solution gives the company powerful control over the new state-of-the-art facility.

Tools include Avocent DSView® 3 management software, which provides a single point of control via a simple Web-based interface, so IT administrators can remotely control servers and network equipment. IT managers no longer have to regularly visit the data center, even when a server crashes, shaving hours every week from their schedule.

Crucially, the Avocent end-to-end solution facilitates a high level of security. For reasons of client confidentiality, Microsoft manages servers at the console level and the Avocent end-to-end solution means that IT managers can see and manage these consoles easily, saving time and increasing efficiency.

Said Hao-Yin Tsang, Lab Engineer at MTC Thames Valley: "The alliance between Microsoft and Avocent is a huge advantage for us. Without these solutions we simply couldn’t run our data center effectively. The Avocent technologies provide a secure, simple means of managing the entire infrastructure, reducing the amount of time we need to spend in the data center and helping us provide a reliable and effective service to our customers.”

MTC is looking to use Avocent solutions to further optimize the data center in the future, including Avocent MergePoint® Infrastruture Explorer, which will create a diagram of the data center to calculate power consumption across all devices.

Said Owen McKee, Country Manager UK&I, Avocent: "Microsoft has to offer its customers best-in-class data center services and it has to do it efficiently and securely. Avocent solutions are the foundation that makes this possible by giving Microsoft technicians full visibility of facility performance, remote access and the infrastructure to ensure client data remains absolutely confidential.”

About Avocent Corporation

Avocent delivers IT operations and infrastructure management solutions for enterprises worldwide, helping customers to reduce costs and simplify complex IT environments via integrated, centralized in-band and out-of-band hardware and software. Additional information is available at : www.avocent.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains statements that are forward-looking statements as defined within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including the risks associated with general economic conditions, risks attributable to future product demand, sales, and expenses, risks associated with acquisitions and acquisition integration, risks associated with product design efforts and the introduction of new products and technologies, and risks associated with obtaining and protecting intellectual property rights. Other factors that could cause operating and financial results to differ are described in the Avocent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2009. Other risks may be detailed from time to time in reports to be filed with the SEC. Avocent does not undertake any obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements based on events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Copyright © 2009, Avocent Corporation. All rights reserved. LANDesk and Avocent and their respective logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Avocent Corporation, its subsidiaries or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.