If you have inherited a rack with Avocent gear in it, or found a Cybex switch on a secondary market listing and wondered whether the company still exists, the short answer is: yes, but the name on the invoice is Vertiv now.
The longer answer is one of the more tangled ownership chains in this industry, and it explains why the same hardware shows up under three different brand names.
A merger of the two biggest
Avocent did not start as a company. It was formed in 2000 from the merger of Apex and Cybex Computer Products Corporation, which were at the time the two largest KVM manufacturers in the world. The combined business was headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.
That origin is why you still see Cybex on current products. It was not retired, it became a product line. Our catalog carries the Cybex SC945XD and the Cybex SV220 under the Avocent name, and the Cybex SC800 series under Vertiv. Same lineage, three badges, depending on when the unit was made.
The acquisition spree
Through the 2000s Avocent bought its way across the infrastructure management market:
- Equinox Systems, 2001, serial communications
- Soronti, 2003, which brought KVM over IP
- Cyclades Corporation, 2006
- LANDesk Software, 2006
- Touchpaper Software, 2008
- Ergo 2000, 2008, LCD rack console
The software purchases are the tell. Avocent was trying to move from selling switches to selling IT management, which is a much larger market and a much harder one.
Bought, then sold
On 6 October 2009, Emerson Electric announced it would acquire Avocent for $1.2 billion. The tender was finalised on 11 December 2009, and Avocent became part of Emerson Network Power.
Seven years later Emerson got out. On 2 August 2016 it agreed to sell Network Power to Platinum Equity, and the business was renamed Vertiv. Avocent has been a Vertiv subsidiary since.
So the chain runs: Apex and Cybex merge into Avocent in 2000, Emerson buys Avocent in 2009, Platinum Equity buys the division in 2016 and renames it Vertiv, and Avocent survives inside it as a brand.
Practical consequence: support, firmware and warranty for anything Avocent branded now run through Vertiv. If you are searching for a datasheet and getting dead links, search the model number with "Vertiv" rather than the brand on the case.
What the current range looks like
The products in our catalog cluster into two groups, and the split is sharper than it is at most of Avocent's rivals.
Secure desktop KVM, which is now the bulk of the line. The Cybex SC800 and SC900 families, certified under NIAP protection profiles, built so one operator can work across separated networks without data crossing between them. Our catalog carries the SC820DPH-400 and SC840DVI-400 two and four port models, the dual monitor SC920XD and SC945XD, and the command and control oriented SCKM145.
Standard desktop switches, the SwitchView line. The SV240DPH-400 and SV340DPH-400 handle DisplayPort and HDMI for two and four computers, and the older SV240 and SV340 cover VGA and dual monitor DVI.
There is also still some analog rack KVM in circulation, like the 16 port AutoView AV2216, though that category has largely been replaced by KVM over IP.
One thing worth noticing: Avocent's weight has shifted toward secure and government work. Compare that with Raritan, which kept its centre of gravity in data centre out-of-band access, and Adder, which went toward broadcast and control rooms. Three companies that started in the same category and specialised in three different directions, while ATEN refused to specialise at all and now outsells all of them on range.
Buying Avocent gear today
New: you are buying a Vertiv product. Fine if you need NIAP certified separation, overkill otherwise.
Used: this is where it gets interesting and where most people encounter the brand. Avocent built enormous volumes of rack KVM through the 2000s and a lot of it still works. Three cautions before you buy:
- Check what the remote client needs. Older generations depend on Java applets that modern browsers will not run. This single issue makes more secondhand units useless than hardware failure does.
- Check the brand era against support. A Cybex badged unit may predate the Emerson acquisition by years. Documentation exists, but you will be hunting.
- Secure models are often sold without their accessories. The certified switches frequently need specific cables and sometimes a smart card reader, and the certification depends on using them.
For an ordinary desk none of this applies and you want something simpler. The best KVM switches covers that, and if your question is really about running two monitors, dual monitor KVM switches is more useful.
Where the information here came from
Corporate history, the Apex and Cybex merger, the Emerson acquisition value and dates, the Platinum Equity sale and the Vertiv rebrand are from the public record as summarised on Wikipedia. Product details are from our own catalog entries, built from manufacturer documentation.
We have no commercial relationship with Vertiv.