Loudcloud Beefs Up Opsware, Faces Suit

As Loudcloud Inc. works to build momentum behind its operations management software licensing initiative, issues from the company's roots as an MSP may dog the effort.

Loudcloud, which is in the midst of changing its name to Opsware Inc., will announce this week the addition of some 60 modules to its namesake platform that deliver such capabilities as automated provisioning, deployment, configuration and change management for servers and applications.

The application- and server-specific modules are aimed at large IT shops looking to make fast and frequent changes while avoiding conflicts among system components.

But of particular interest to observers is the company's new Intelligent Software Modules, which provide valuable operational intelligence about what works together and in what order changes must be made.

"Configuration management is one of the most manual frontiers of IT," said Corey Ferengul, an analyst with Meta Group Inc., in Chicago. "Loudcloud is trying to automate the process with built-in intelligence. It can tell you things like 'The Oracle [Corp.] package you want to install is incompatible with this version of AIX unless you have this patch.'"

So how is the Frontera merger affecting business? Read on to find out.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.