Veritas beefs up utility software

Strengthining its utility computing software, Veritas Software on Monday released an upgrade to its server provisioning product called OpForce. The product lets system administrators automate tasks, such as configuring server operating systems. The tools obviate the need to manually install server software and can deploy software in a few minutes, rather than hours, according to Veritas.

With version 4 of OpForce, the software can install customized configurations of BEA's WebLogic application server software, which runs Java business applications. Veritas intends to do closer integration between OpForce and other commercial application servers, like IBM's WebSphere, said Rob Soderbery, Veritas' vice president of storage and server management. OpForce can also automatically provision server software based on a drop in an application's performance. Working with a corporation's systems management software, OpForce can install a new instance of a server in reaction to slower performance. OpForce 4.0 starts at $7,500 per server.