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Opsware Introduces New Level of IT Automation for Windows Environments

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ:OPSW), the leading provider of IT Automation software, today introduced a new level of IT Automation for data center environments that host large numbers of servers running Microsoft Windows. Recognized as the leading product to automate management of servers and applications, the Opsware Server Automation System (SAS) provides new capabilities specifically designed to ease management of Windows-centric IT environments. The tremendous growth of Windows in the data center, increasing compliance pressures and mounting security vulnerabilities mandate a new approach to managing Windows security and compliance. Opsware's new capabilities enable organizations to meet these needs through a new automated operations model that relies on next-generation patch management capabilities, deep configuration-level compliance with granular system auditing, and server lockdown to prevent unauthorized changes.

Under increasing pressure to comply with industry best practices and government regulations, enterprises are turning to IT automation solutions with sophisticated, cross-platform lifecycle management capabilities. Opsware SAS builds on its industry-leading capabilities and now provides more powerful server automation features for Windows systems including advanced patch management, deeper and easier auditing for security and compliance, and comprehensive out-of-the-box reporting capabilities. Opsware SAS provides hundreds of Windows-specific compliance checks and security controls, far surpassing the compliance capabilities of any other data center automation product on the market.

According to IDC, for all of 2005, Windows server revenues were $17.7 billion, which means that for the first time the Windows server segment edged above spending for Unix servers as customers deployed more fully configured Windows servers in support of scalable enterprise workloads and server virtualization projects.(1)

"Spending on Windows is the largest of any enterprise server platform, leading customers to demand more ways to reduce the complexity of managing these systems," said Tim Howes, CTO of Opsware Inc. "Opsware's Server Automation System provides customers with the most advanced automation for Windows, further strengthening our leadership in managing multi-platform environments and significantly increasing the cost savings that customers can achieve with our IT automation software."

Opsware SAS enables IT organizations to maintain a secure environment by defining security best practices, automating Windows server patch management and helping ensure that servers remain in compliance. Opsware's integrated compliance capabilities enable auditors and managers to quickly determine where vulnerabilities exist and rapidly bring servers into compliance. New capabilities in Opsware SAS include:

Deep Auditing and Compliance Management for Windows Systems

Opsware SAS provides extended support for the wide variety of Windows objects, enabling granular auditing and control. In addition, Opsware now provides a collection of out-of-the-box best practice policies for auditing Windows servers & Microsoft applications to enable customers to more rapidly achieve compliance.

Advanced Patch Management

All server environments need to proactively manage security. Windows servers, in particular, are frequently attacked thereby increasing the urgency to proactively identify vulnerabilities and deploy patches to secure the environment.

Opsware SAS now provides support for user-defined patch policies by platform, application or business unit, and enables IT to automatically verify compliance against these policies. To further expand its support for Windows, Opsware SAS integrates with Microsoft's patch network to automatically verify compliance against policies integrated with the network. Opsware SAS provides more flexible and intelligent patch installation for Windows by modeling operational dependencies and relationships, and providing rich scheduling and notification capabilities.

Lockdown Servers from Unauthorized and Unaudited Change

Opsware SAS enables IT organizations to prevent a wide range of unaudited changes while still providing flexibility administrators need to quickly troubleshoot and resolve critical issues. Preventing unauthorized and unaudited changes is critical to facilitate compliance, increase administrator accountability, and reduce time to recover from downtime.

About Opsware Inc.

Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ:OPSW) is the world's leading IT Automation software company. The growth of the Internet is driving a shift from client/server computing to Web architecture. With this shift comes an overwhelming proliferation of servers, networking devices and applications, creating massive complexity that makes automated IT operations a necessity. Opsware automates the complete IT lifecycle and enables IT to automatically discover, provision, patch, configure, secure, change, scale, audit, recover, consolidate, migrate, and reallocate servers, network devices and applications. Over 350 of the world's largest companies, outsourcers and government agencies use Opsware to deliver this new, automated model of IT. For more information on Opsware Inc., please visit our Web site at www.opsware.com.

Opsware is a service mark and trademark of Opsware Inc. All other product names, service marks, and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) IDC Press Release, Worldwide Server Market Slows in Fourth Quarter But Grows to $51.3 Billion in 2005, Highest Revenues in 5 Years, according to IDC, Feb 22, 2006.

Source: Business Wire

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