Avocent’s strategic collaboration with Singapore Management University (SMU) adds industry experience in IT operation management; year-long joint sponsorship to assist in the development of IT leadership hires in Singapore.

Singapore – January 21, 2009 — As part of the company’s continuing commitment and growth in Singapore, Avocent Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT), a global leader in IT operations management, announced today it will be sponsoring undergraduate enrichment programmes at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Avocent will be working with students from the School of Information Systems (SIS) at SMU. This marks Avocent’s first key collaborative relationship with SMU and is part of the company’s global academic support programme.

Ryan Sia, Vice President, Asia Pacific of Avocent said, “This partnership represents our commitment to developing talent and infrastructure specialists around the world. We recognise the world class opportunities and talent available in Singapore and are thrilled to be working with SMU in developing a body of research including research papers, benchmark studies and surveys in support of the real world business and technology issues as part of the undergraduate curriculum”.

Steven Miller, Dean and Professor of Information Systems Practice added, “At the School of Information Systems, we endeavour to address real world issues and business challenges in our unique Business-IT curriculum. We focus on providing our graduates with the tools and knowledge to achieve a mastery of technology and applied IT rooted in the context of business. In collaborating with established industry leaders such as Avocent, we are able to tap into a deep pool of knowledge and best practices to produce a new breed of business-oriented IT professionals who have depth across business analysis, IT solutions design, and IT infrastructure management.”

The sponsorship includes among others the sponsoring of a selected SMU team of undergraduate students at the CaseIT competition in Canada in February 2009, a semester long Green IT case study project, student internships programme and a technical lecture series for the undergraduate curriculum.

Organised by Simon Fraser University, CaseIT 2009 is an annual international undergraduate business and information systems case competition designed to find the best and brightest undergraduate students across information systems and business in strategic IT case analysis. With a strong Management Information Systems (MIS) focus, it is designed to seek out the best and brightest in strategic IT case analysis. Last year’s SMU team finished second in the same competition and will be participating in the competition this year with very high expectations. Panel of judges at the 2008 competition described the SMU team as being the most thorough in their analysis and confident in handling most of their questions. “The strong performance of the SMU team last year was an inspiration to us all, and we have a very high benchmark to meet at CaseIT 2009. We hope to do better this year and the experience from Avocent will be invaluable in enabling us to achieve our goals and dreams. The School of Information Systems has also been tremendous in their academic support and encouragement in our preparation for the competition,“ said Mr Stanley Chua Tiong Min, fourth year student with the School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University.

Green IT Project

Environmental concerns and reducing carbon footprints have been the most talked about in the world today. Avocent is committed to operating in a manner that is compatible with our environment by working with SMU School of Information Systems students on a commercial study as a semester long Green IT project where students build a business case for Green IT in the corporate environment. For a start, SMU students will work on a Green Power Project targeting at the energy cost savings realized by using Avocent’s Green Power solutions in the IT Operations Management space with findings being published end of first quarter 2009.

Designed to operate in heterogeneous computing environments. Avocent’s Green Power Solution allows for monitoring of the three key parameters of Consumption, Capacity and Cost for all levels of the organization, from individual devices and racks, through datacenters to the sum of all datacenters. Avocent’s unique Green Power Solutions offers an unprecedented visibility and control of every dimensions of the organizations power consumption from data center to desktop.

“This partnership with SMU is a global Avocent programme of investing in our future through academic programmes and curriculum. We are pleased to be working with a renowned tertiary institution such as SMU as they represent some of the brightest prospects from Singapore and the region,” explained Ryan Sia. ” This new relationship with Avocent is another excellent example of how we integrate business and IT in innovative and interesting ways. Our students get a great opportunity in going beyond the ordinary academic experience. They get immersed in real-world challenges such as Green IT, and this prepares them to become business IT professionals who create value in the business world while at the same time helping the global environment,” said Professor Miller.

About Avocent Corporation

Avocent delivers IT operations management solutions that reduce operating costs, simplify management and increase the availability of critical IT environments 24/7 via integrated, centralized software. Additional information is available at www.avocent.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains statements that are forward-looking statements as defined within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including risks associated with general economic conditions, risks attributable to future product demand, sales, and expenses, risks associated with acquisitions and acquisition integration, risks associated with product design efforts and the introduction of new products and technologies, and risks associated with obtaining and protecting intellectual property rights. Other factors that could cause operating and financial results to differ are described in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 21, 2008. Other risks may be detailed from time to time in reports to be filed with the SEC. Avocent does not undertake any obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements based on events or circumstances after the date hereof.

About the School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University (SMU)

SMU’s Bachelor of Science (Information Systems Management), offered by the School of Information Systems, is a first-of-its-kind degree programme in Asia that teaches technology and applied IT rooted in the context of business. The hybrid Business-IT degree aims to produce a new breed of business-oriented IT professionals who have depth in both business analysis and IT solutions design. The programme is known for its dual emphasis on (a) the technical skills for the design and deployment of business information systems and (b) the business skills for analysing value, costs and risks of design and deployment alternatives. The intake for Academic Year 2008/9 is over 250 students. The School’s current total undergraduate enrollment is over 760 students. By the end of 2010, the School is expected to have over 1,000 undergraduates. The school offers degree programmes at the bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. level.

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