MValent to release updated apps management software

Computerworld - MValent Inc. next week plans to take the wraps off the latest version of mValent Integrity, software that's designed to automate the configuration and management of application and Web servers and other application components.
The software, which will be available on Monday, starts at $60,000 and will be deployed by several existing mValent customers, including WorldWinner Inc., an online gaming company in Newton, Mass., and State Street Corp., a financial services company in Boston, according to executives at the companies.
WorldWinner and State Street both have been using mValent's current Infrastructure Automation Suite (IAS) software for more than two years. IAS was introduced in 2003 and revised in 2004. The third version is being renamed mValent Integrity, according to Joe Forgione, CEO of Burlington, Mass.-based mValent.
New features in mValent Integrity include the ability to rollback to a prior version of an application that fails and to automatically deploy new releases of applications across hundreds of servers at one time, Forgione said.
Another new feature is the ability to explore potential problems with online gaming applications prior to their release, something WorldWinner plans to use, said WorldWinner CIO Joe Bai. WorldWinner is now testing the software and plans to deploy it, having found that prior versions "dramatically increased" the company's ability to offer online games. WorldWinner games are used by 14 million registered players, he said.
WorldWinner has also been able to reclaim revenue lost in the past to application downtime, but Bai was unable to cite a specific figure.
State Street expects to upgrade to mValent Integrity soon, said Joseph Kennedy, State Street's vice president of IT. State Street wants to stay current with the product, since prior versions have reduced the time needed to debug new application configurations. State Street uses MValent software to monitor a variety of systems that affect its 19,000 employees, he said.
Kennedy said mValent has helped the financial services firm add scalability to its application infrastructure and resolve problems with configurations, something he called "invaluable." State Street has been able to expand the application environments it maintains without adding system administrators, he said.
MValent Integrity appears to be unique in the market, said two analysts, Jean-Pierre Garbanim at Forrester Research Inc. and Dennis Drogseth at Enterprise Management Associates.
Two companies offer products that are similar to mValent's offering: Relicore Inc. in Burlington, Mass., and Collation Inc. in Redwood City, Calif. But mValent seems to be unique because it focuses on the entire life cycle of managing applications, from predeployment into deployment, Drogseth said.

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