An Out-of-Band Infrastructure, or OOBI (oo-bee), is an extremely cost-effective alternative to local administration . An OOBI provides secure alternate paths into the production infrastructure so that disconnected assets can be remotely reconnected and subsequently returned to normal operation, in most cases eliminating the need for local administration. An OOBI can improve operational efficiencies, cut costs, improve productivity and, in many cases, improve service levels and availability.
It is typically implemented using Console, KVM, IPMI baseboard controllers and intelligent power strips - often with a OOBI Manager which integrates into traditional infrastructure management tools such as HP Openview , Tivoli, Spectrum, etc. - and will become more relevant in the management of data centre infrastructure as IPMI gains traction with server vendors.