Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz Demonstrates Cure to Data Center Complexity Crisis Created by Server Virtualization; OPSWorld 2006 Keynote Unveils Roadmap for Automating Management of Virtualized IT Environments

Business Wire, Sept 13, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ: OPSW), the leading provider of Data Center Automation software, today announced the company's strategy for managing complex virtual server environments at the company's annual user conference, OPSWorld, held this week in San Jose, CA. During an opening keynote in which he demonstrated solutions for automating the management of tough IT assignments from VoIP networks to configuration management data bases (CMDB), CEO Ben Horowitz discussed the little understood challenges of managing virtual servers. This complexity created by the rapid adoption of server virtualization -- and the accompanying rise in server "images" to be managed -- has reached crisis proportions as IT departments struggle to keep up with the dramatically increased workload. Horowitz's keynote discussed and demonstrated the value that automation can deliver for environments virtualized with technologies such as VMware, Microsoft Virtual Server, Sun Solaris 10, XenSource and others, both in terms of setting up these environments as well as in the ongoing management of them.

Virtualization promises tremendous benefits to IT including the ability to consolidate server hardware, provide business continuity, lower capital costs and significantly increase the flexibility of the IT infrastructure. However, like most hot IT trends that catch fire with great anticipation and promise, virtualization risks replacing one set of elegantly solved problems with other issues of equal or greater impact. If these issues are not fully anticipated and dealt with, they can lead to unwieldy complexity, add to IT labor shortages, and have the potential to rapidly spread security and service delivery problems across a global enterprise. To prevent these problems and allow IT organizations to realize the full benefits of virtualization, Opsware has developed a comprehensive solution available in the near future and today unveiled the longer-term roadmap for automating the management of virtualized IT environments.

"The whole world is talking about virtualization as the next great panacea for IT," said George Hamilton, Enterprise Computing & Networking Director, Yankee Group. "Virtualization offers great promise, but if you don't accompany it with automated management, you risk creating bigger problems than those you solve. Opsware recognizes this potential and has articulated a comprehensive strategy for helping IT sidestep the pitfalls and enjoy the full benefits that virtualization has to offer."

The Problems Created by Virtualization

With the introduction of virtualization, enterprises are under pressure to manage a significantly larger number of servers. While virtualization decreases hardware costs, it can create a staggering increase in virtual server instances, each of which has the same maintenance requirements as a physical server. In fact, virtualization on average creates four more servers for every one physical server, driving an explosion in complexity for enterprises -- many of which are already managing thousands of servers. With more servers to manage, IT operating costs quickly escalate and the entire infrastructure becomes more complex and harder to control.

In addition to dealing with virtual server sprawl, IT organizations are struggling to seamlessly manage across physical and virtual environments, and multiple virtualization platforms within these environments. This introduces further management headaches by making it increasingly difficult to enforce critical compliance, security and reporting policies. Enterprises are also challenged with creating and maintaining of a large number of virtual servers, as there has been no way to obtain a common, integrated view of the relationship between physical host and virtual machines.

Opsware's Roadmap for Automating Virtualized IT Environments

Opsware's data center automation strategy solves the unique challenges of virtualization by enabling customers to:

--Discover and map virtual environments:

In today's dynamic IT environment, it is increasingly difficult for enterprises to discover and track virtual servers. Opsware's Data Center Automation software solves this challenge, clearly delineating between the physical world and virtual environment and through one single management console providing the ability to provision, view and track physical and virtual servers.

--Create virtual servers

Opsware will automate the process of creating virtual servers through a simple point-and-click interface that enables rapid creation of virtual machines for all virtual server platforms, including VMware, Sun Solaris, Microsoft Virtual Server and XenSource. Without this level of automation, IT organizations would have to use separate, disparate point tools, each requiring administrators to have specialized knowledge and expertise.

--Seamlessly track and manage physical and virtual relationships:

With the massive complexity created by virtualization, enterprises are demanding an integrated view of their physical and virtual server environments, including the ability to track virtual machine dependencies. To ensure seamless management across physical and virtual environments, Opsware provides a graphical representation of dependencies between physical and virtual servers and automatically tracks when virtual servers are moved across physical servers.