Opsware Introduces IT Automation Solution to Address European Compliance and Best Practices; Top-Ranked Server Automation System Enables Major Compliance Initiatives Including ITIL and COBiT

Business Wire, June 27, 2005

PARIS -- Opsware Inc. (Nasdaq:OPSW), the leading provider of IT automation and utility computing software, today announced that the recently launched Server Automation System (SAS), now supports major European compliance and best practices initiatives. The release, code-named Darwin for its evolution of IT automation, is the brainchild of distinguished CTO and LDAP co-inventor, Dr. Tim Howes. The new system promotes industry best practices, such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which are critical to aligning IT and business strategies.

As companies worldwide increase investment in IT automation to lower costs and gain control over the 13 billion euro compliance management problem, the immediate need for a solution is clear. Opsware automates 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 ITIL, COBiT, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and others. In particular, the compliance capabilities provide critical operational data necessary to comply with ITIL practices to improve change and configuration management and incident and problem management, thereby reducing time-to-repair (TTR). Opsware's unmatched management reach and scalability allows customers to achieve truly global automated compliance -- previously unachievable.

"Companies worldwide are faced with the daunting cost and implementation of compliance and best practices," said Dr. Tim Howes, CTO of Opsware Inc. "Opsware's Server Automation System facilitates European standards such as ITIL or COBiT -- providing a quick and easy solution to contain costs, increase control of operational processes and improve service levels."

Opsware SAS was recently ranked the leading Data Center Automation product by Forrester Research. This product furthers the company's market leadership in offering the first available solution with compliance automation capabilities. In addition, the Opsware ExpressAutomation(TM) feature set makes it easier for companies to achieve the benefits of on-demand computing and an automated IT environment. ExpressAutomation enables ease-of-use, speed of deployment and time-to-productivity, delivering unmatched simplicity and time-savings that surpasses all other data center automation products and legacy enterprise management systems. It will expedite the most time-intensive tasks inherent in transitioning to an automated environment. IT can now automate a heterogeneous environment consisting of thousands of servers and start realizing automation efficiencies in less than five hours. For example, in an environment of 7,500 servers, one customer experienced automation efficiencies in a few days rather than weeks or months. Similarly, another customer was able to provision 600 software packages across hundreds of servers in minutes.

A[micro]   Highlights of the Opsware Server Automation System

A[micro]   -- Compliance Center

A[micro]       --  Granular auditing of servers, networks and applications to
            ensure adherence to corporate and regulatory policies

A[micro]       --  Uniquely identifies deviations from policies and automates
            remediation at any level of granularity

A[micro]       --  Out-of-the-box reports for all major compliance
            initiatives including SOX, COBiT, ITIL, Basel II and
            others

A[micro]   --  Advanced Policy Enforcement

A[micro]       --  Hundreds of out-of-the box policies capturing industry
            best-practices around deployment, configuration, security
            lockdown and management of common applications and
            platforms

A[micro]       --  New Opsware Dynamic Groups allows policies to be applied
            to groups of servers based on their profile eliminating
            the need to manually classify servers for large
            environments

A[micro]   --  Automated Discovery & Deployment

A[micro]       --  Rapidly discovers servers, network devices and other IP
            devices, and quickly deploys agents to bring hundreds of
            new servers under Opsware management per hour

A[micro]   --  Opsware Server Explorer

A[micro]       --  Enables browsing of any server in any location as if it
            were local, resulting in rapid automation of servers
            across an IT environment

A[micro]   --  Remote Terminal

A[micro]       --  Creates a secure terminal connection to any managed server
            enabling highly secure, audited management of systems at
            any location

A[micro]   --  Automated Application Configuration Management

A[micro]       --  Enables highly granular configuration of applications down
            to individual configuration parameters across multiple
            servers simultaneously

A[micro]       --  Eliminates need for administrators to be experts on
            specific applications and configuration syntax

Availability

Opsware SAS is generally available as of June 2005.