If you have network gear in multiple locations but don't have an IT pro at every site, Uplogix would like a word with you. The company sells appliances that let IT perform administration, maintenance, and recovery tasks on switches, routers, and other equipment from a central location using a single interface. --Andrew Conry-Murray

Uplogix simplifies maintenance and troubleshooting of routers, switches, firewalls, and other devices deployed at remote locations. Typical in-band management tools run over the network, but an outage will hamper remote administration. By contrast, Uplogix offers robust management capabilities and data collection with a single interface via out-of-band serial ports.

The appliance monitors any IP-based device that has a serial port or common network port. Key features include strong configuration capabilities. Administrators can store previous configurations and roll back to a known good state if a configuration change causes problems. They also can perform line-item configuration changes. The Uplogix product offers automated OS upgrades and patches. A remote Web access option lets IT check device health without the command-line interface.

Founder Dollar was a network architect for application service providers and drove network strategies for Coca-Cola and Reliant Energy. Goldman was CEO of NetBotz, which was acquired by APC.

Uplogix offers two appliances: the 3200 and 430. The 3200 scales up to 32 ports, while the 430 has four ports for locations that have a small number of devices. Both appliances can manage devices in-band via the network and out of band. Uplogix also offers centralized management of multiple appliances through Control Center, a Web-based console. IT can use it to perform all maintenance, configuration, and recovery tasks; get reports; and enforce authorization and access control policies.