Opengear debuts CM8000 & OM1300 for outage recovery

Opengear has launched two new products designed for out-of-band network access and recovery, as information technology teams report more frequent outages and increasingly complex distributed estates.

The company stated that it has added the CM8100 series and the OM1200 series to its established Network Resilience Platform. Opengear described both offerings as next-generation devices specifically engineered to maintain secure access to critical network equipment when an organisation's primary production network becomes unavailable or compromised.

Opengear cited its own internal research, which discovered that 84% of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) have experienced a notable rise in network outages over the previous two years.

CM8000 Series

Opengear positioned the CM8000 Series as a "serial-first" recovery platform for sites such as core branches, small aggregation locations and network closets. The company said the range includes models with four or eight serial ports.

Opengear said the CM8000 Series integrates power control. It said the units integrate with PDUs for remote power cycling.

The company also highlighted connectivity options. It said the CM8000 Series offers Ethernet uplinks through RJ-45 and SFP connectors. It described the connectors as supporting copper or fibre connectivity.

Opengear said the CM8000 Series integrates with its Lighthouse product. It said Lighthouse provides centralised visibility for out-of-band management.

OM1300 Series

Opengear presented the OM1300 Series as an edge-focused alternative. The company said the range combines serial access, switching and local automation in a single device.

It positioned the OM1300 Series for retail sites, micro data rooms and compact edge locations. Opengear said those environments often seek fewer devices and simpler deployments.

Opengear said the OM1300 Series supports zero-touch provisioning. It also said the product line delivers "significantly faster automation performance than previous OM models".

Outage pressure

Many organisations have expanded the number of locations where they deploy network and compute equipment, including branches and edge sites. That shift can increase the number of links, devices and suppliers that teams must manage, and it can raise the operational cost of responding to incidents across widely distributed infrastructure.

Opengear said its latest releases reflect a need for continued access during failures. "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, 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," said Quirk.

Shipping plans

Opengear said CM8004, CM8008 and OM1304 begin shipping at the end of January 2026. It said OM1308 is available for preorder now.

Opengear operates as a Digi International company. The business sits within Digi's wider portfolio, which includes connectivity and device management products aimed at businesses running large numbers of distributed systems.