EDS has renewed an agreement for services from IT
automation and utility software company Opsware, signing an
additional $50m (£27.8m) three-year deal that will run through
2008.
The companies had already signed a three-year, $52m deal to
2005, but EDS chose to renew the arrangement with a year remaining
on the contract. The new contract also has five option years that
could extend its worth to $145m.
"Opsware software has proven to be a best-in-class solution,
helping EDS to deliver on the promise of automation and the
requirement for a flexible, scalable, agile, cost-efficient
infrastructure, all of which are key ingredients in a global
utility computing service," said Larry Lozon, vice-president of EDS
Hosting Services.
"Together, EDS and Opsware have improved the quality and
efficiency of hosting services by automating the entire environment
of managed enterprise software, and the IT infrastructure upon
which applications and websites run."
EDS is using Opsware automation in datacentres across North
America and Europe.
Datacentre automation is a key component of EDS's Agile
Enterprise platform, which automates operations such as server
provisioning, system configuration, patching, disaster recovery and
configuration management.
"The fact that EDS has renewed its commitment to Opsware
demonstrates the importance of IT automation and the value it has
already realised with Opsware software," said Ben Horowitz,
president and chief executive of Opsware.
Todd R Weiss writes for Computerworld