Opsware's Major New Release Dramatically Eases Compliance, Automation of Large IT Environments
Next generation of top-ranked Opsware Server Automation System fully automates compliance management and introduces new ExpressAutomation™ feature set
Sunnyvale, CA - May 16, 2005 -- Opsware Inc., a leading provider of IT automation and utility computing software, today announced the next major release of the Opsware Server Automation System (SAS). The major new release, code-named Darwin for its revolutionary effect on IT automation, is the brainchild of distinguished Opsware CTO and LDAP co-inventor, Dr. Tim Howes. Recently ranked the leading Data Center Automation product by Forrester Research, Opsware SAS furthers the company's market leadership by becoming the first system to offer a breakthrough in compliance management with Opsware's new Compliance Automation capabilities and dramatically eases automation of large, heterogeneous IT environments with an advanced new feature set called Opsware ExpressAutomation™.
As companies invest further in IT automation solutions to lower costs and gain control over an estimated $16 billion compliance-management problem, the immediate need for a deep compliance management solution is clear. Opsware's new Compliance Automation capabilities automate all aspects of server and application compliance, from granular policy-based auditing with automated remediation to a Compliance Center that includes out-of-the-box reports for Sarbanes-Oxley, ITIL, COBIT, and others. Opsware's solution uniquely combines policy compliance capabilities at all layers of the software stack, from operating systems to applications and configurations, with the power of Opsware's Contextual Data Model and unmatched management reach and scalability, allowing customers to achieve truly global automated compliance -- an impossible task until now.
Furthermore, Opsware is making it dramatically easier for companies to rapidly achieve the benefits of utility computing and an automated IT environment with the introduction of the Opsware ExpressAutomation feature set. ExpressAutomation revolutionizes ease-of-use, speed of deployment and time-to-productivity, delivering unmatched simplicity and time savings that far surpass other data center automation products and legacy enterprise management systems. ExpressAutomation fully automates the most time-intensive tasks inherent in transitioning to an automated environment.
With Opsware SAS, IT organizations can now automate a heterogeneous environment consisting of thousands of servers and start realizing automation efficiencies in less than 5 hours. One customer brought its entire environment of 7,500 servers under management and began realizing automation efficiencies in a few days. Another provisioned 600 software packages across hundreds of servers in 6 minutes.
"Cadence is using Opsware automation to power critical software development infrastructure, where the productivity gains and cost savings delivered through Opsware's ExpressAutomation and deeper compliance capabilities will be multiplied during our global deployment," said Sheryl Sweazy-Root, IT Director at Cadence Design Systems, a billion dollar electronic design technologies company. "Opsware automation provides consistency across complex, distributed environments, helping us ensure the highest quality IT operations."
Highlights of the Opsware Server Automation System (SAS) include:
Audit and Compliance Engine -- Opsware's server auditing and compliance engine enables granular auditing of servers and applications to ensure adherence to corporate and regulatory compliance policies. The compliance engine has unique ways of identifying deviations from policies and automating remediation at any level of granularity.
Dynamic Server Groups -- Allows policies and best practices to be applied to groups of servers based on their profile and group criteria so no manual maintenance of policy mappings is needed. Dynamic Groups dramatically increase compliance and policy enforcement for large, dynamic environments where the operational overhead of applying policies is error-prone and expensive.
Application Configuration Management -- Enables highly granular configuration of applications down to individual configuration parameters across multiple servers simultaneously. Features breakthrough flexibility, eliminating the need for administrators to be experts on specific application syntax and works across packaged and custom applications.
Compliance Reporting - Opsware provides out-of-the-box compliance reports for all major regulatory initiatives including SOX, HIPAA, ITIL and others. Automated reporting is also provided for all other company-specific compliance policies that an IT organization must adhere to.
ExpressAutomation Features
The combination of ExpressAutomation features speed deployment and ensure administrators are productive and realizing automation efficiencies within a few hours.
Automated Discovery -- Other products depend on time-consuming, manual processes to discover servers before bringing them under management. Opsware now rapidly and automatically discovers servers, network devices and other IP devices at the rate of several hundred per hour.
Automated Deployment -- Automates the process of bringing discovered servers under management, eliminating previously manual, time-consuming processes to facilitate quicker deployments.
Opsware Server Explorer -- Enables browsing and control of any server in any location as if it were local, resulting in rapid automation of servers across an IT environment.
Remote Terminal -- Creates a secure terminal connection to any managed server, enabling highly secure, audited management of systems at any location.
Premium Policies and Content Pack -- Opsware provides hundreds of out-of-the box policies capturing industry best practices around deployment, configuration, security lockdown and management of common applications and platforms.
Next Generation User Interface -- All new SAS features are delivered through a rich user interface that is highly intuitive and minimizes the learning curve, enabling IT to immediately realize automation efficiencies.
"Opsware's Darwin release provides important new capabilities in compliance automation and in automating the deployment of the Opsware automation software itself," said Tim Grieser, IDC's vice president of system management software research. "The new automated discovery capabilities built into ExpressAutomation will greatly speed the process of deploying Opsware software to manage today's diverse server and network IT infrastructures."
"The Darwin product is a whole new breed of technology that radically evolves how IT manages large, distributed environments and provides a tremendous leap forward for companies embarking on IT automation and utility computing initiatives," said Dr. Tim Howes, CTO of Opsware Inc. "With Darwin, IT can begin realizing massive automation benefits immediately and reach new levels of efficiencies across their global enterprise."
Opsware SAS, when combined with Opsware Network Automation System (NAS), provides enterprises with unprecedented visibility and control over their IT operations through the complete automation of applications and their entire underlying infrastructure. In pilot release now, Opsware SAS will be generally available in June 2005.
About Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ: OPSW)
Opsware Inc. is the world's leading IT automation and utility-computing software company.For more information on Opsware Inc., please visit our Web site at http://www.opsware.com.
###
Opsware is a service mark and trademark of Opsware Inc. ExpressAutomation and certain other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of Opsware Inc. All other product names, service marks, and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
The determination of when Opsware Server Automation System will be made available, if ever, remains at the sole discretion of Opsware Inc. This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the benefits, capabilities and release of our software products. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements, including the risk that the assumptions underlying our current business strategy may change, that our experience operating as a software company is limited, and that the products may not perform as described. More information about these and other factors that could affect our business and financial results is included in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on April 15, 2005 under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and the Forms 10-Q and 8-K that we file during the fiscal year.