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21.Aug.2025

OOB in Action: Smarter Remote Management for Kiosk Deployments

OOB in Action: Smarter Remote Management for Kiosk Deployments

Kiosks have become a backbone of modern service delivery in smart cities, retail environments, and public transportation. From ticketing and check-ins to product browsing and self-pay stations, they offer users convenience—and companies operational efficiency.

But behind the screens, keeping kiosks online is no small feat. These systems often operate in unattended environments, and when a system freezes, the operating system crashes, or the network connection fails, traditional in-band management tools become useless. Without OS-level access, IT teams are left with one costly solution: dispatching on-site technicians.

This is where hardware-level remote access, or Out-of-Band (OOB) management, becomes mission-critical.

Reducing Cost & Downtime with C&T's DCO-100-ASL and Out-of-Band Management

In a hypothetical kiosk deployment with 50 devices, service downtime and on-site maintenance were driving up operational costs. To address these challenges, the team deployed C&T’s DCO-1000-ASL Series DIN-Rail Fanless Embedded Computer, equipped with optional Out-of-Band (OOB) capabilities.

TCO Comparison with OOB and without OOB

Through a dedicated RJ45 OOB port and integration with a Allxon’s centralized remote management platform, administrators gained secure hardware-level access to perform tasks like:

Remote BIOS access
Power cycling
Log collection
Troubleshooting—even when the OS is unresponsive

This eliminated the need to send technicians for routine fixes. What used to take hours and cost hundreds in service calls was now handled remotely in minutes, saving both time and money.

Category	Without OOB	With OOB (Allxon - Year 1)	With OOB (Allxon - Year 2)
Device Count	50 devices	50 devices	50 devices
Dispatch Cost	High	~90% lower	~90% lower
Downtime per incident	6-8 hours	Minutes	Minutes
System Recovery Time	Hours	Minutes	Minutes
Estimated Downtime Cost	High	Greatly reduced	Greatly reduced
Annual Downtime Cost	~$30,000+	< $2,500	< $2,500
OOB Hardware Cost	-	One time investment	-
Total Yearly Cost	~$34,500+	~65% lower	~80% lower

Even with initial setup costs, using C&T's’s OOB-enabled DCO-1000-ASL series achieved significant operational savings, especially from Year 2 onward, where recurring costs remained low while system uptime stayed high.

Extending the Benefits of OOB Across Edge Deployments

While OOB management has clear advantages for kiosk deployments, its value can also extend to other mission-critical environments—such as railway systems, energy facilities, or remote industrial sites—where sending on-site technicians is difficult, costly, or delayed.

In these scenarios, having an independent hardware-based access channel could offer faster troubleshooting, better uptime, and operational continuity—especially when systems freeze or the OS becomes unresponsive.

C&T’s rugged edge computing platforms—including the DCO-1000-ASL Series and select x86 and ARM-based models—support optional OOB functionality via dedicated RJ45 ports. When paired with centralized device management tools like Allxon, operators gain additional visibility and control that may help streamline remote maintenance tasks across a wide range of applications.

For teams managing distributed edge infrastructure, OOB can be a practical addition to improve resilience and reduce the burden of on-site support.

To learn more about OOB Management, visit here.