• 1. Cfengine Nova Brings the Power of Unix Management to Windows (April 5, 2010)
• 2. Cfengine Releases Cfengine Nova Knowledge Map to Help Companies
  Manage and Report on the Complete Server Life Cycle Process (November 2, 2009)
• 3. Cfengine Nova introduces low-cost datacenter automation with integrated
  knowledge management (April 20, 2009)
• 4. Self-repairing datacenter Automation solution released (January 1, 2009)
• 5. Cfengine to offer a proprietary licence (August 20, 2008)
• 6. Support & Consultancy available to Cfengine-users (July 25, 2008)

Cfengine Nova Brings the Power of Unix Management to Windows

Saint Petersburg, FL (April 5, 2010) - Cfengine, a global provider of cross platform management software for Unix-like operating systems, today announced a new version of its award-winning Cfengine Nova exclusively for Windows. This natively-compiled version of Cfengine Nova supports the complete system life cycle management process for Windows-based environments (Build, Deploy, Manage and Audit). Windows System Administrators can now leverage Cfengine Nova real-time configuration and compliance management to manage the complete server life cycle management process. Cfengine Nova for Windows is compatible with Cfengine Software - already installed on millions of computers around the world - running Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Cray and Mac-OSX.

Cfengine Nova for Windows is a true Windows port, offering integration with file system security, system registry, event viewer and Windows management services.

"Cfengine Nova for Windows helps me automate the management for software deployments in an effective and consistent manner", said Omer Khalid, a senior fellow at CERN, who has been evaluating the new Cfengine product.

Cfengine Nova for Windows makes the company's cross platform software one of the most versatile solutions of its kind for Windows-based configuration and compliance management. The lightweight nature of Cfengine, combined with its cross-platform functionality, makes it the ideal management solution for cloud and virtualization computing environments. Thomas Ryd, Cfengine's CEO, explains, "Cfengine's approach to server life cycle management offers organizations a unified and consistent automation method that reduces complexity and improves organizational knowledge about enterprise systems".

"The benefit of Cfengine Nova for Windows is that you can use one common policy language to support your entire heterogeneous computing environment", said Eystein Måløy Stenberg, Cfengine Lead Engineer. "Our customers can now leverage Cfengine Knowledge Management across all major platforms to ensure complete compliance".

Cfengine is a channel-driven organization and this new Windows-based solution will complement its partners' product offerings and drive exponential value with their existing customers. James Chinn, CEO of Shadow-soft, a Cfengine partner explains how, "To reduce the cost of ownership, our customers require automation across the entire server life cycle management process in heterogeneous environments. The addition of native Windows support within the Cfengine Nova platform ensures the cross-platform automation needed to significantly reduce IT operational costs".

Cfengine Nova for Windows is available today. More information can be found on: www.cfengine.com/nova.

Cfengine Releases Cfengine Nova Knowledge Map to Help Companies Manage and Report on the Complete Server Life Cycle Process

Saint Petersburg, FL (November 2, 2009) - Cfengine, the leading open source provider of server life cycle management software, today introduced the upgraded Cfengine Nova Knowledge Map, providing customers with a powerful way to manage the server life cycle management process. Driven by Cfengine's unique blend of customer research and technology leadership, Cfengine Nova uniquely provides IT Administrators with a stand-alone solution for automated Server repair to understand, manage and enforce compliance across the enterprise.

"By standardizing server configurations, automating system repair, and removing unauthorized applications or executables, Cfengine Nova will continue to reduce the total cost of ownership for our customers," said Bob Whirley, President and COO of Cfengine. "Cfengine's automated server life cycle management solution has been a leading solution for over 16 years and we look forward to partnering with Cfengine and working with our customers to provide this unique solution," said Troy Webb, GM of CompServ.

Mark Burgess, CTO and Founder of Cfengine adds, "The Cfengine Nova Knowledge Map has been very carefully thought out to transform today's server management practices from their current state of technical incomprehensibility, unpredictability and vulnerability to an automated desired state of continuous computing in which the intentions (i.e. Business Goals) are clear for all to see throughout the entire workflow. Server maintenance, repair and administration represent some of the major cost burdens for enterprise datacenters, today - and this can be solved now. We are already looking ahead to the challenges beyond this, such as enterprise knowledge management, scalability and business alignment."

Cfengine's software automates the Build, Deploy, Manage, and Audit server life cycle management process for 1,000's of end users across more than 20 countries in wide range of industries including AMD, Navy, JP Morgan Chase, Express Scripts, Intel, Yale University, eBay, Bloomberg, CBS.

Cfengine Nova introduces low-cost datacenter automation with integrated knowledge management

Oslo (April 20, 2009) - Cfengine, the leading Open Source provider of datacenter automation solutions introduces Cfengine Nova, drawing on 15 years of market feedback and more than a million installations of worldwide experience. Cfengine Nova is best of breed automation solution, bringing multiplatform repair and policy-based compliance to global organizations. Cfengine Nova has been enhanced extensively by user feedback to manage the entire server lifecycle.

CEO Thomas Ryd explains: Organizations are facing fierce budget cuts and increased license costs in datacenters, resulting partly from the tough economic times. Cfengine is one of the most popular datacenter automation solutions in the world today, and Cfengine Nova provides customers with an inexpensive commercial enhancement to accommodate new industry demands.

Several companies have already expressed interest. Senior Systems Engineer Paul Krizak of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) says, "The IT organization at AMD has been using Cfengine for over 5 years to administer enormous computational clusters in support of our microprocessor development. We look forward to the new and innovative features in Cfengine Nova to further improve our operational efficiency".

Nova was engineered to reduce policy complexity and improve knowledge of organizational processes, says Founder and CTO of Cfengine Mark Burgess, also a Professor at Oslo University College. The next wave of datacenter automation tools has to move away from alarm and event management, as it pushes a huge burden onto humans. This is the only way to cope with the challenges of scale and spiralling costs.

Server maintenance, internal and external compliance (SOX, SAS70, etc.), patching and security are major costs for enterprises. Cfengine's proven solution brings savings and efficiency through simplified provisioning and reduced downtime.

For more information please visit: www.cfengine.com/nova

Self-repairing datacenter Automation solution released

Oslo (January 1, 2009) - Following 5 years of research and development under the technical direction of its long time author Mark Burgess (a professor of Network and System Administration at Oslo University College), the recently formed support company Cfengine AS today released a major upgrade of the Open Source, self-repairing software Cfengine based on its innovative Promise Theory technology.

Unlike would-be alternatives, Cfengine is not about producing alarms and reports to notify about errors and misalignments in the Data Center: it is a fully self-repairing maintenance engine capable of fixing them without human intervention. Cfengine users know that systems are compliant and maintained even when humans are unavailable, because they have made all the important decisions in advance.

With probably a million existing Cfengine installations already worldwide, this major upgrade will have a big impact in improving data center operations at some of the largest data centers in the world, says CEO Thomas Ryd.

Cfengine has always been at the leading edge of research in its field and one of the important innovations in the new release is integrated knowledge management. As a tool that separates human decisions from machine implementation, Cfengine historically freed humans from manual labour to indulge in proactive decision-making and strategic planning - something that relies on clear enterprise knowledge. Cfengine 3 now integrates a knowledge engine based on ISO standard Topic Maps making it easier than ever to follow the strategic intentions behind data centers operations. Cfengine ties IT and business-processes together in a way many companies and compliance-auditors will find powerful and appealing, CEO Thomas Ryd continues.

Cfengine is not a quaint dashboard for users - it is a powerful engine for datacenter engineers. Version 3 introduces an innovative new language to the trusted technology, with a simpler syntax and sophisticated pattern description features. It brings technology to manage the essential large scale infrastructure and resource clouds of the next decade.

Cfengine 3 will work side-by-side with existing versions of Cfengine to provide a minimum-disruption, incremental upgrade path to existing users. Gradual adoption has always been the cornerstone of Cfengine's success, setting it apart from alternative disruptive roll-out systems. While other solutions require weeks or months of training with downtime and a major impact on existing infrastructure and applications, Cfengine works unobtrusively behind the scenes, according to Mark Burgess.

Cfengine AS added support and consulting services to the mix this year, with a strong business management team to complement Burgess's well known research credentials. CEO Thomas Ryd summarizes the main reasons for using Cfengine 3 in datacenter Automation:

1. It is the only truly scalable self-repairing solution.
2. Its open source code base is broadly tested by a community of expert users.
3. Its state of the art technology for voluntary cooperation delivers scalability and security and users set their own pace for change.

Cfengine to offer a proprietary licence

Oslo (August 20, 2008) - Cfengine AS has today announced it will offer a proprietary licence for Cfengine version 3.0.0.

Along with the release of Cfengine 3.0.0, Cfengine AS will offer third-parties the right to modify, implement or in other way integrate Cfengine in other licensed software packages. In our quest to make Cfengine the most usable software within configuration and automation, allowing third-parties to distribute, bundle and integrate the software, is an important and strategically correct decisions, CEO Thomas Ryd comments. This will not influence the free Cfengine. Core Cfengine software will still remain GPLed, Thomas continues.

Support & Consultancy available to Cfengine-users

Oslo (July 25, 2008) - by email, phone and onsite presence, Cfengine now offers professional support to new and existing users of the open source software Cfengine. Top-qualified Cfengine-personnel are now ready to assist the Cfengine-community, CEO Thomas Ryd announced today.

After 15 years, time is more than ripe. With our support-services available companies can feel confident both using and modifying Cfengine, Thomas Ryd says. Given the software, we believe our support-services will make the difference and even more companies will decide to use Cfengine, and use it more extensively than today. We also offer onsite consultancy and training-sessions, starting with a first training-session in San Diego, November 2008 during the USENIX/LISA 08 conference. ITIL-compliance, SOX-compliance, adaption, Proof-of-concept, Assessments and adjustments of existing infrastructure and validation are among the things our customers will request.