Systems/Enterprise:

OPSWARE MULTI-DATA CENTER DISASTER RECOVERY GAINING ADOPTION

Opsware Inc, a provider of IT automation and utility computing software, announced increasing adoption of the Opsware System's Multimaster capabilities, which automate operations across geographically dispersed data centers and significantly reduce the costs associated with disaster recovery. The deployment of Opsware Multimaster has reached a significant milestone, with over 25 deployments today in large-scale data centers worldwide. Opsware Multimaster, the heart of Opsware's scalability advantage, is one of the key reasons customers select Opsware over other data center automation products. Opsware Multimaster has been selected by enterprises including United Kingdom-based British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), major media and cable companies, service providers and government agencies such as The U.S. Department of Energy.

Opsware's Multimaster capability enables the management of geographically distributed servers and applications from a central location using a single console. This global transparency allows IT organizations to leverage best practices and knowledge across multiple locations and ensure operations consistency across the entire enterprise. Additionally, Multimaster dramatically speeds the recovery of a data center environment in the event of a failure or disaster by enabling the immediate recreation of the environment including server platforms, software infrastructure, and applications. Multimaster offers unmatched speed of recovery and cost savings, compared to other IT automation products and the previous generation of disaster recovery systems.

"Global organizations require global capability. Therefore, to gain the true benefits of operational automation, technology must provide transparent, remote capability for worldwide applications," said Corey Ferengul, vice president at META Group, a provider of IT research, advisory services and strategic consulting. "There is benefit in the automation of day-to-day operational tasks; however, a robust data center requires the capability to automatically rebuild failed servers or even entire data center environment in the event of a disaster. The rapid replication of server and application configurations is required for most disaster recovery plans."

"Achieving consistent operations is a critical component in creating a stable and secure IT environment able to withstand failure or disaster," said Tim Howes, CTO and executive vice president of development at Opsware. "Opsware System is the only system with Multimaster capability, which provides IT the ability to visualize an environment and share knowledge about that environment across the enterprise. Because of these capabilities, Opsware enables organizations to create hardened IT operations that can be rapidly recovered in the event of a disaster."