Introduction

The Polish President Office supports all the actions undertaken by the Polish President. The office is in charged of the essential, organizational, legal and technical support for the President, the Head of the Office, Premiers and Vice Premiers. From the safety and the identity of Poland point of view this is one of the most important, key executives.

I. The Challenge

The Polish President Office is using two computer networks in its daily operations. One of them enables the Internet access and the other is used only internally, without the possibility to send any data outside.

The President Office faced the situation in which some of the employees had to use both networks simultaneously. In this case, they would have to use two computers, containin of the central unit, monitor, keyboard and mouse. This would be the simplest but not the most cost effective solution and the costs reduction is the key factor for all the budget units of the Treasury. Moreover, two computer units per one user would be very unpractical from the occupied space point of view.

II. The Solution

The only one solution for the conflict between the need of data security and the functionality of the workplace occurred to be the KVM switches (keyboard/video/mouse). The Polish President Office decided to deploy the ATEN International switches, the leading provider of this solutions.

Taking the data security and the quality of work of its employees as the priority, the Polish Pressident Office purchased from AJM Electronics, ATEN authorised distributor, 10 switches supporting the daily operations of the Office employees. Thanks to this products dozen of the officers are eble to use only one keyboard, one mouse and one monitor while using two computer units simultaneously, connected to the various networks.

ATEN switches helps to save money, which would have had to be spent on additional PC equipment otherwise, as well as the space on the desk.

The Office chosen the following switches:

CS1762 (2 units) — switches enabling the simultaneous work on two computer units. Products are equipped with the DVI and VGA slots, with the possibility to connect the keyboard and the mouse via USB. As the products supports the DVI format, high resolution of 1920x1200 can be achieved.

CS1744 (2 units) — switches enabling the connection of up to four computers equipped with two-port graphic cards. To put it in more simple way — the switches enables the connection of two monitors and the simultaneous work on four two-monitors workstation! Additionally, the product allows for switching connected USD devices and audio system. The best resolution for this product would be 2048x1536.

CS82A (6 units) — this products allows for the connection of two computers (including notebooks) to the one keyboard, mouse and monitor. The switch, equipped with PS/2 ports, enables the work in high resolution of 1920x1440.

III. The Benefits

The deployment contained of the ten workplaces. We did not face any problems, as the solutions are very intuitive and simple to use. — said Waldemar Ozga, responsible for IT systems in the President Office. — KVM switches are the best for the applications where one person need to use two different computers connected to the verious networks, which cannot "see" each other. Moreover they reduce the workplace costs very effectively. We work more secure, cheaper and more convenient thanks to the ATEN International KVM switches.

The President Office intends to implement more switches, more advanced products this time, which would allow for 16 servers management.