Patent ID: 7624281

Claim:
A system for permitting a user to access one or more host computers, the system comprising: a KVM drawer including a video monitor, a user input device, and a pointing device, wherein the KVM drawer is supported by an associated rack; an emulation controller communicatively coupled to the KVM drawer and one or more host computers; an identification input device for receiving biometric data associated with an associated user; and an authentication device communicatively coupled to the emulation controller and to the identification input device, wherein the authentication device is capable of providing the associated user access to the one or more host computers based at least in part upon the biometric data received from the identification input device; and a storage device communicatively coupled to the authentication device, wherein the storage device includes a set of reference data for associating the associated user with a set of unique biometric data, wherein the set of reference data is stored in an encrypted format.