The automated server provisioning software, VERITAS OpForceTM 3.2, offers expanded support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server.

VERITAS OpForce simplifies and automates the process of deploying, provisioning and managing multiple servers in a datacenter. Administrators, whether local or remote, can quickly discover available servers, prepare them for deployment and provision them to hot spots in the network. OpForce also records hardware and software inventory, tracks software licenses, sets up administrative and user access and manages the entire IT lifecycle.

"With expanding Linux support from major vendors like VERITAS, the benefits of deploying Linux in the enterprise are becoming clearer by the day," said Chris DiBona, cofounder of San Francisco CA-based Linux consultancy Konstrux Technologies. "More and more organizations are finding out that Linux can be an integral part of a scalable, heterogeneous, cost-effective enterprise clustering and transaction solution. No matter your application, unique tools such as VERITAS OpForce that can save administration costs -- and more importantly IT staff time -- in these mixed IT environments will be essential to unlocking the full value of these deployments."

By deploying VERITAS OpForce 3.2, customers can reduce the standard server deployment in a common scenario of preparing and provisioning 30 servers from more than 200 hours down to less than 15 hours.

Automated server provisioning is a key pillar of utility computing. VERITAS is committed to helping customers streamline their IT operations, provide higher levels of IT services and increase the flexibility of their server infrastructures through the innovative new features of OpForce 3.2 that include:

• Expanded OS support that includes SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 3.0 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

• Improved performance and scalability with provisioning support for Intel 64-bit Itanium processor-based servers

• Increased service levels for enterprise customers with automated bare metal discovery that includes in-context provisioning, resource pooling, and on-the-fly personalization

• New pre-deployment feature that allows IT staff to associate a server profile with specific slots on a blade server chassis so that when a blade server is inserted into a slot it is automatically provisioned with the appropriate operating system and applications

• Increased capability to automate provisioning for both 32- and 64-bit servers to run SuSE Linux or Red Hat. Automated provisioning reduces IT administrative costs while increasing administrative efficiency in order to create an IT environment that is aligned with changing business needs

VERITAS OpForce integrates with the industry's leading virtualization technology, VERITAS Volume ManagerTM and VERITAS File SystemTM, and supports IBM AIX, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, the SolarisTM Operating System (Solaris OS) and Microsoft Windows.

"The promise of utility computing benefits the end user when costs are kept moderate; however, management costs can increase in scale when multi-vendor datacenter environments need to interact," said Fred van den Bosch, VERITAS executive vice president and CTO. "VERITAS OpForce 3.2 enables our enterprise customers to obtain the benefits of a utility computing model by provisioning resources on any platform, which allows datacenters to run more efficiently, and at lower costs."

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