Opsware Introduces the Zero Latency Data Center to Accelerate IT Performance

Business Wire, March 21, 2007

90% Average Time Savings Per Task Achievable through Opsware Data Center Automation

NEW YORK -- At its annual Analyst Day event today in New York City, Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ:OPSW), the leading provider of Data Center Automation software, announced a new version of its software suite designed to deliver the Zero Latency Data Center, Opsware's vision for nimble enterprise IT operations accelerated to help businesses achieve their technology-powered objectives without delay.

Latency is the gap in time between a task's initiation and its completion. In IT, latency stems from a combination of the siloed management of different IT infrastructure elements (servers, networks, storage, processes); the extensive reliance on manual "hand-offs" between disparate IT groups; and the independent and loosely coordinated management of different geographies within a global IT organization.

Until now, IT management tools, which should help get rid of latency, have themselves been just as disparate, unintegrated and incompatible as the hundreds, often thousands of different applications running in data centers that these tools are called upon to manage. Thus these management tools themselves can be significant sources of latency.

In the Zero Latency Data Center, there are no manual, error-prone hand-offs between processes that should be integrated, no cracks between infrastructure groups because of their use of incompatible tools, no discrepancies in information caused by geographic distance, nor any of the wasteful and now unnecessary causes of delays and inefficiencies that have plagued data centers.

The Opsware Automation System eradicates latency by attacking its root causes. It is the first unified automation suite for the whole data center. Unlike any other automation software available today, the Opsware suite integrates change management, compliance, and process automation all in one, working across servers, networks and, later this year, storage. This seamless combination will allow customers to achieve comprehensive, end-to-end automation to a degree that has been previously unattainable -- enabling orders-of-magnitude labor and cost savings as well as greater predictability and accountability across IT operations. Most importantly, the Zero Latency Data Center makes it possible for businesses to use IT as a catalyst for achieving their most critical objectives faster than ever before.

"The Zero Latency Data Center unlocks the power of technology for global businesses and represents a major turning point in enterprise IT," said Ben Horowitz, president and CEO of Opsware Inc. "Now IT can assume the roles it was always meant to have: the engine of breakthrough business accomplishment, the agent of game-changing competitive advantage. Delays, outages and cost-overruns caused by IT latency have for too long stifled business progress. The Opsware Automation System makes the Zero Latency Data Center a reality. It enables frictionless IT operations, yielding orders-of-magnitude improvements in efficiency; in quality and consistency of service; and in compliance. Even better, it puts within reach the highest aspirations of business powered by technology."

Leading Companies Quash Latency with Opsware

Opsware's Data Center Automation software is eradicating latency for more than 350 companies globally. Many Opsware customers have achieved 90% or more time savings per task through implementing the Opsware Automation System. Among some of the impressive results:

* 95% Improvement in Time-to-Repair. A top 10 telecommunications company reduced the time to provision retail wireless access spots from 7 days to 6 hours and achieved a 95% improvement in time-to-repair.

* 217% Increase in Application Updates. The world's largest specialty retailer in its category more than tripled the number of application updates to hundreds of locations nationwide from 1,200 to 3,800 per week.

* Increased Compliance Rate from 4% to 100% for Thousands of Servers. A top 5 software company increased the compliance rate for their network infrastructure from 4% to 100%.

Characteristics of the Zero Latency Data Center

In order to achieve zero latency, a data center automation system must be global, seamless, and living.

Global

It must be global and all-inclusive in scope, encompassing not only the operations of all data center and remote locations spread around the world, but also all aspects of the physical and virtual IT infrastructure. This includes all silos, all vendors, all makes and models of devices, and all software applications and configurations. For example, it must be able to manage both physical and virtual servers side-by-side, as the full gamut of operational issues are every bit as relevant to virtual servers as they are to physical ones.

Seamless

A zero latency data center automation system must be seamlessly integrated. All barriers between tasks, infrastructure, geographies, competing best practices, and related external systems must be eliminated. Changes in one part of the data center must immediately be reflected everywhere. IT's dependency on momentary, point-to-point integrations -- a source of continual errors and significant latency -- must be replaced by a single authoritative data model that gives everyone the same view of the entire global environment.