Opengear introduced two new platforms—the CM8000 Series and OM1300 Series—aimed at maintaining network access and control during outages, as enterprises contend with increasingly distributed IT environments. The new devices expand Opengear’s Network Resilience Platform with compact, automation-ready out-of-band infrastructure designed for both core recovery and edge deployments.
The company cited internal research indicating that 84 percent of CIOs and CISOs have seen an increase in outages over the past two years. In response, the CM8000 and OM1300 families target scenarios where production networks fail, leaving IT teams without visibility or remote access. Both platforms integrate with Opengear’s Lighthouse centralized management software to support secure, scalable out-of-band operations.
The two product lines take different architectural approaches. The CM8000 Series focuses on serial-first recovery for branches and aggregation sites, while the OM1300 Series integrates serial access, switching, and local automation into a single device for compact edge locations such as retail sites and micro data rooms.
- CM8000 Series
- Serial-first recovery platform with integrated power control
- Available in 4-port and 8-port configurations
- Supports RJ-45 and SFP Ethernet uplinks for copper or fiber
- Designed for network closets, branches, and small aggregation sites
- Centralized visibility and control via Lighthouse
- OM1300 Series
- Integrated edge platform combining serial access, switching, and automation
- Targets retail, micro data rooms, and compact edge sites
- Supports zero-touch provisioning
- Delivers faster automation performance compared with prior OM models
- Reduces device count and deployment complexity at remote locations
“Networks may be more distributed than ever, but resilience still depends on the ability to reach your equipment when everything else is down,” said Patrick Quirk, President of Opengear. “The CM8000 Series and OM1300 Series give organizations two purpose-built ways to stay in control, whether they need core recovery or simplified edge management.”
🌐 Analysis
Opengear has specialized for more than two decades in out-of-band management, building its position around serial console access, cellular failover, and centralized orchestration through Lighthouse. Founded in Australia and later expanding its headquarters to Utah, the company built early credibility with service providers and large enterprises that required deterministic access to network gear during outages, long before “network resilience” became a mainstream design principle. Its acquisition by Digi International in 2019 placed Opengear within a broader portfolio of industrial IoT, edge connectivity, and managed services, while allowing it to continue operating as a distinct networking brand.
The CM8000 and OM1300 launches reflect how outage recovery requirements have shifted alongside edge computing and highly distributed architectures. Enterprises now operate thousands of smaller sites—retail stores, factories, cell aggregation points, and edge data rooms—where traditional in-band management and manual intervention are impractical. Competitors such as Lantronix, ZPE Systems, and Perle Systems address similar use cases, but Opengear continues to differentiate around tight integration of serial access, cellular connectivity, and centralized policy-driven control. As automation frameworks and zero-touch provisioning extend deeper into the edge, out-of-band infrastructure increasingly serves as a foundational control plane rather than a last-resort tool, positioning Opengear’s latest platforms as core components of modern network architecture.
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