Skytap Announces ISV Alliance Program for Cloud Computing

Market Wire, October, 2008

Skytap, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based virtual lab solutions, today announced its Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Alliance program to enable on-demand distribution of commercial software solutions through its Virtual Lab platform. Skytap's initial ISV partners, including Appistry, AutomatedQA, Borland, iTKO LISA, SmarteSoft and SOASTA, will make available their solutions as for-fee titles in the Skytap Library. Skytap's Virtual Lab automation platform, combined with these for-fee titles, enable customers to dynamically spin up entire IT environments, complete with industry-leading ISV tools, for testing or training labs.

"Too often application testing is crippled by the fact that IT teams don't have access to adequate test tools or appropriate test environments; and even after adequate tools and appropriate test environments are identified, procurement can be an obstacle to their adoption," said Scott Barber, Executive Director of the Association for Software Testing. "Skytap's ISV partnerships will provide a way for IT organizations to access the tools and environments they need on demand, thereby better testing applications to help ensure business requirements are achieved."

'Cloud-Enabling' Existing ISV Solutions

Cloud computing offers compelling benefits for customers, including on-demand access to both software and infrastructure and the ability to align costs with operational needs. Skytap allows companies to run their existing applications and virtual machines unchanged to take advantage of cloud economics without a major application rewrite. The company's Web services API and one-click VPN functionality allow organizations to create a "hybrid" IT model whereby cloud resources can be used and managed as an extension of existing onsite IT environments. With the introduction of the Skytap ISV alliance program, customers can now also access software from leading ISVs within the Skytap environment and gain the benefits of a pay-as-you-go model for the ISV software.

"Our customers and partners recognize the major industry trend toward cloud computing and the significant value that can be achieved through the adoption of this new model," said Steve Brodie, chief product and marketing officer of Skytap. "As one of the early innovators in this market, Skytap enables companies to quickly shift their dynamic, high cost IT environments to the cloud with the company's Virtual Lab platform and API. The Skytap Library initially carried many open source and operating system titles, and our customers have asked for specific ISV titles to be available as well. Our expanded software library and platform now provide immediate access to market-leading ISV solutions and a cost-effective on-demand model for customers."

As part of Skytap's ISV alliance program, Skytap customers will receive:

--  ISV tools and solutions available in the Skytap Library
--  Pre-built virtual machines of ISV solutions to reduce set-up and
    configuration time
--  A single monthly bill including itemized usage for both ISV software
    and Skytap Virtual Lab infrastructure
    

Partner Quotes:

"The Skytap Virtual Lab allows end-users to access the infrastructure needed to deliver applications quickly, easily and on-demand," said Appistry chief executive officer Kevin Haar. "As a member of Skytap's ISV alliance program, Appistry ensures Skytap customers will have immediate access to an application platform that dramatically simplifies the development, deployment and management of highly-scalable applications and services for deployment in public and private cloud environments."

"The Skytap team picked the right area to focus on first," said Drew Wells, CTO of AutomatedQA . "Software testing is the ideal market for cloud computing and virtualization and we're excited to offer TestComplete on Skytap's platform. The clean web-based UI makes it easy to configure complex machine setups and use them with TestComplete to quickly do anything from simple tests across different configurations to heavy load tests without taking on expensive hardware ownership and maintenance costs. Skytap is going to save a lot of time and money for AutomatedQA customers."

"Borland's Open ALM approach delivers flexible, affordable and adaptive solutions to help companies transform software delivery into a managed business process," said Brad Johnson, senior director of product marketing for Borland . "The Skytap partnership extends our existing on-premise virtual test lab support to the Cloud, providing customers with a new, powerful way to access our world-renown Silk product line to address quality throughout the software delivery lifecycle."

"The cost model for using LISA Virtualize as a test and validation environment in the cloud makes perfect sense," said Jim Mackay, CMO, iTKO LISA . "In addition to offering Skytap customers complete SOA testing capabilities, LISA Virtualize abstracts away the actual system under test from dependencies on partner systems and third party resources, which means huge cost savings, as well as a much more rapid way to stand up a complex SOA environment."