rPath Virtual Appliance Journal on Ulitzer

rPath today announced enterprise-focused productivity and management enhancements to the rPath release automation platform. The upgrades refine the functionality and user experience of the fully version controlled release automation solution, meeting the needs of each stakeholder in the enterprise release management process. These upgrades are the first product delivery against “Project Javelin,” which extends rPath’s system version controlled management model into the broader data center automation market.

“For enterprise IT, system complexity is emerging as the greatest threat to cost, compliance and service level agreements,” said Jake Sorofman, vice president of marketing for rPath. “At the center of the complexity challenge is the release management process—the tasks associated with creating, provisioning and maintaining software systems. With this latest rPath version, we’re arming IT organizations with the tools to easily standardize, automate, control and audit their release management processes, reducing delay, operating expenses and compliance risks.”

Release Automation Addresses System Complexity Crisis
System complexity is accelerating in the enterprise, driven by a number of key forces. First, the use of open source, dynamic programming languages and application frameworks means that software is more diverse than ever before. At the same time, the popularity of Agile and other iterative development techniques has dramatically increased the pace of change. Both of these trends place pressure on the IT operations groups responsible for provisioning and maintaining software systems. Making matters worse, virtualization has multiplied the volume of system instances that require management—and cloud computing promises to compound the problem.

In response to the system complexity crisis, rPath has enhanced its release automation platform with richer capabilities for enterprise IT groups. These enhancements include:

• Dashboard reporting – Visualizes the release and system environment, allowing users to understand system compliance, measure software distribution rates and patterns, and take action on release processes and system updates.
• Workflow integration and role-based support – Provides built-in dialogs and workflow supporting key tasks for release engineers, managers and system administrators. In addition, rPath provides seamless API integration with existing workflow, business process management, and service desk tools.
• Release catalog and promotion UI – Provides an easy-to-use, accurate list of approved, deployable software for IT operations. rPath’s UI for release promotion makes it easy to promote/demote system versions between development, testing and production.
• Centralized system inventory – Provides an up-to-date, easy-to-query list of all systems— physical-, virtual-, or cloud-resident—under rPath management, complete with key discovered attributes and required software versions.
• Central control for provisioning and pushing updates – Allows administrators to easily provision systems and updates across single systems or entire data centers, with complete control over maintenance timing and rollback.