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Industry Leaders Join Forces to Create a Full Client Manageability Ecosystem Based on the ASF 2.0 Standard

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (Enterprise Management World 2005) Leading technology companies, including Altiris, AMD, Broadcom, Computer Associates (CA), Dell and HP, today announced that they have joined forces to mutually support the Alert Standards Forum (ASF) 2.0 specification. The supporting companies are helping to deliver an ASF ecosystem that includes market education (via white papers, sales training and webcasts), interoperability testing and ASF certification (through plugfest events), and the implementation of ASF features within various hardware and software products. The ASF standard was created by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) to address problems associated with the manageability of enterprise desktop and mobile PCs.

As a standards-based technology, ASF brings the collective power and insight of the entire industry to bear on the problem of client manageability. The result is a best-in-class technology that is designed to offer the traditional benefits of a standard:

* Consensus within the industry, thereby avoiding the unnecessary risk that a new manageability technology might introduce. * An open security scheme that is subject to intense industry scrutiny, helping to ensure that it is robust and reliable. * The promotion of interoperability, enabling homogeneous IT environments to work seamlessly and predictably. * The ability to enable a broader range of supporting solutions, preserving choice in the industry and freeing IT from proprietary architectures.

By deploying a comprehensive technology such as ASF 2.0, IT managers can significantly reduce the cost of certain common enterprise activities, such as provisioning new PCs, delivering critical software patches, remotely diagnosing and repairing PCs, and detecting physical threats to PCs. ASF can simplify IT management by sending client alerts to IT and by enabling IT to remotely control the PC even if the PC is in an OS-absent state.

The six companies (Altiris, AMD, Broadcom, CA, Dell and HP) have joined forces to help raise awareness of ASF capabilities and the benefits of a standards-based client manageability solution for today's desktop and laptop computers. With a massive worldwide installed base of 75 million PCs with ASF 2.0-enabled hardware already deployed in enterprise networks, IT managers can access the features today with a dedicated ecosystem and products based on this client manageability standard.

ASF Vendor Support Quotes

"ASF-compliant hardware allows IT managers to further extend the power of Altiris management solutions through additional hardware control," said Tyler Smith, Altiris Vice President of Business Development. "We intend to leverage this technology, and the huge installed base of ASF-enabled PCs, to help our customers drive down the cost of hardware ownership."

"Today's enterprise customers demand the stability and interoperability that a standard such as this can provide," said Marty Seyer, Vice President, Commercial Business and Performance Computing, Microprocessor Solutions Sector, AMD. "AMD believes in open standards that free customers from inflexible platforms. We support ASF 2.0 for image stability of enterprises that rely on AMD Opteron(TM) and AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor-based systems."

"Standards are the key to providing the best combination of price, performance and technology," said Greg Young, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's High Speed Controller Line of Business. "Our product strategy emphasizes standards and we are pleased to see the industry rallying around the ASF specification."

"Standards-based desktop management is essential for ensuring that the business gets maximum value from its desktop investments and for enabling IT to minimize total cost of ownership," said Vince Re, Senior Vice President at CA. "CA has consistently pioneered and promoted management standards at every level of enterprise IT infrastructure, and is doing so once again by supporting ASF 2.0."

"Dell supports the standardization of client management to maintain maximum flexibility while reducing total cost of ownership for our customers," said Margaret Franco, Director of OptiPlex Desktop Marketing. "Dell is focused on leading the drive to deliver solutions that meet customer needs for improved remote management, reduced desk-side visits, and improved security."

"HP is committed to delivering solutions to improve the security and manageability capabilities for our customers," said Brian Schmitz, Director of Marketing Enterprise PC Division for HP. "ASF and HP Client Manager are and continue to be a proven solution for several generations within the HP desktop product line."

Product Information The following products support the ASF 2.0 standard: * Dell OptiPlex desktops (GX620, GX520, GX280, SX280) * Dell Precision workstations (670, 470, 380, 370) * Dell Latitude laptops (D810, D610, D600, D510, D410, D400, X300, X1) * HP Compaq desktops (dc7600, dc7100, dc5100, dc5000, dx5150) * HP workstations (xw6200, xw4300, xw4200) * Broadcom(R) Gigabit Ethernet controllers (BCM5751, BCM5752, BCM5753)

Future versions of the Altiris management infrastructure supporting ASF 2.0 are expected by the first quarter of 2006. CA's Unicenter r11 product family is scheduled to support ASF 2.0 in early 2006. A broad array of other management consoles that support ASF 2.0 are expected to be available.

About ASF 2.0

The ASF 2.0 specification is the culmination of years of industry experience in managing client PCs. Proprietary solutions were introduced in the 1990s, but ultimately the industry called for a standards-based solution. In 2000, ASF 1.0 was created by the DMTF to provide alerting capabilities that notified IT managers of problems with their enterprise PCs, while also providing remote control functionality that enabled IT managers to diagnose and fix problems over the network. ASF 2.0 followed in 2002, adding strong authentication capabilities to the specification based on the HMAC/SHA-1 industry standard algorithm.

During the introduction of ASF to present, the standard has been broadly adopted by the industry's leading PC OEMs who have shipped over 75 million PCs with ASF-enabled hardware to date. ASF has attracted the attention of major manageability console vendors, such as Altiris and CA, who recognize the market opportunity to leverage the hardware features of this manageability standard to the massive installed base and plans to support ASF 2.0 by early 2006.

The widespread deployment of ASF-enabled hardware is also attractive to IT departments, since most will not change their workflows and processes to accommodate manageability features until at least 50% of the PCs have the required support. Today's 4-year PC refresh cycle means that ASF-enabled PCs will dominate the installed base well through 2010, enabling IT departments to enable ASF features as early as 2006. In contrast, a client manageability solution that requires new hardware would not see widespread usage of the manageability features until at least 2009.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our respective current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates,""expects,""intends,""plans,""predicts,""believes,""seeks,""estimates,""may,""will,""should,""would,""could,""potential,""continue,""ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the actual results of Altiris, AMD, Broadcom, CA, Dell or HP to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

For each of Altiris, AMD, Broadcom, CA, Dell and HP, its Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. Altiris, AMD, Broadcom, CA, Dell and HP undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.

All trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Altiris Trade Press Contact Rhett Glauser Public Relations Manager 801-805-1131 rglauser@altiris.com AMD Trade Press Contact Sarah Beck AMD Global Communications 512-602-4627 sarah.beck@amd.com Broadcom Trade Press Contact Scott Harlin Public Relations Manager 949-926-5226 sharlin@broadcom.com CA Trade Press Contact Eric Snow Public Relations Manager 508-486-4508 eric.snow@ca.com Dell Trade Press Contact Tom Kehoe Public Relations Manager 512-725-0281 tom_kehoe@dell.com HP Trade Press Contact Nita Miller Public Relations Manager 281-518-5993 nita.miller@hp.com

Broadcom Corporation

CONTACT: Altiris Trade Press, Rhett Glauser, Public Relations Manager,+1-801-805-1131, rglauser@altiris.com; or AMD Trade Press, Sarah Beck of AMDGlobal Communications, +1-512-602-4627, sarah.beck@amd.com; or Broadcom TradePress, Scott Harlin, Public Relations Manager, +1-949-926-5226,sharlin@broadcom.com; or CA Trade Press, Eric Snow, Public Relations Manager,+1-508-486-4508, eric.snow@ca.com; or Dell Trade Press, Tom Kehoe, PublicRelations Manager, +1-512-725-0281, tom_kehoe@dell.com; or HP Trade Press,Nita Miller, Public Relations Manager, +1-281-518-5993, nita.miller@hp.com

Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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