Qlusters, Inc. today announced the openQRM project, an open source systems management platform that automates the management of x86 servers resulting in highly resilient data centers. Based on four years of research and development, openQRM is now being freely distributed under a modified Mozilla Public License and in production at leading Fortune 1000 financial services and high technology companies today.

"openQRM enables data centers built on top of x86 servers to achieve the level of reliability, performance and manageability traditionally found only in environments based on expensive, proprietary servers," said Ofer Shoshan, founder and CEO of Qlusters. "The combination of a product proven in business-critical deployments and the collaborative nature of open source development makes openQRM the best solution for organizations seeking maximum uptime of their data centers."

Qlusters' approach differs from traditional systems management vendors who lock customers into inflexible products that require expensive, time-consuming deployments. openQRM integrates with existing proprietary, internally developed or open source components in enterprise data centers to create scalable and customizable infrastructures. openQRM's architecture extends to and embraces other existing data center technologies through "plug-ins." The openQRM project team has integrated the current release with several broadly-used open source projects and proprietary solutions, and is actively supporting the open source community in the development of additional "plug-ins."

"Data center managers can substantially reduce the cost of operations and improve data center reliability and performance by adopting proven open source technologies," said Henry Mayorga, vice president of operations at Tradeware Global. "openQRM eliminates many of the fire drills that data center managers have traditionally faced and could become the open standard platform for managing the next generation of data centers."

Other key features and benefits to openQRM include:

-- A single system administrator can manage over 100 x86 servers, which can reduce management costs by at least 30 percent per server.

-- Deploys applications and prepares servers in minutes with a single click or can be set up to operate automatically using pre-assigned policies.

-- Handles systems failures automatically, reducing downtime and unplanned work by more than 75 percent.

-- Advanced centralized image management.

-- Assigns servers to users and applications according to defined policies.

-- Feature-rich support of servers running Linux.

"An integrated open source systems management platform is ideal for organizations with custom applications that are seeking an alternative to proprietary solutions," said Stacey Quandt, an analyst with Aberdeen Group. "These organizations will benefit from the flexibility of an open source solution to enable advanced automation and monitoring of their data centers and the applications that drive their businesses."

openQRM Availability

openQRM is available immediately and can be freely downloaded at www.openQRM.org. Qlusters provides enterprise-level subscriptions, which include updates, installation assistance, trouble ticketing, global weekday e-mail-based technical support and full production support including patch and fix distributions. For more information e-mail info@qlusters.com or call (650) 812-3200.

About openQRM.org

openQRM.org is a destination site for IT professionals interested in open source systems management technologies. Contributed by Qlusters and its growing user base, openQRM.org offers a range of support and information services to benefit all users of openQRM, including implementation advice, user forums and customer feedback. Visit www.openQRM.org for details.

About Qlusters, Inc.

Founded in 2001, Qlusters provides open source systems management software to automate the data center. openQRM significantly reduces annual management costs for the data center while helping increase server utilization and minimizing downtime for Fortune 1000 companies. Qlusters is partners with leading vendors including HP, IBM, Intel, and Red Hat. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and has offices in Israel and New York. For more information, please visit http://www.qlusters.com