He added that the switch supports video resolutions up to 1280 by 1024 and has two levels of security, for user and admin access respectively.

Other KVMs support higher resolutions and ranges - up to 1600 by 1200 pixels and over 200 meters reach for some CAT5 systems, and almost unlimited range for KVM-over-IP.

By comparison, these ATEN KVMs are limited to a maximum cable length of 40 meters.

ATEN's big advantage looks to be pricing which is half the cost of higher-spec enterprise KVM-over-CAT5 and a quarter the cost of some KVM-over-IP gear.

However, organizations considering any KVM technology also need to figure in the cost of the adapters needed at each server.