Ardence(TM) Releases V4.0 of its Software-Streaming Platform.

Architectural Redesign and Common-Image Functionality Significantly Increase Manageability, Scalability and Reliability in Desktop & Data Center Deployments; Additional Capabilities Will Ease Transitions to Microsoft([R]) Windows Vista([TM])

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Ardence Inc., the leader in developing software platforms for the on-demand world, today announced the release of Version 4.0 of the Ardence Software-Streaming Platform, which includes sweeping manageability, scalability and reliability improvements for its global desktop and data center customers.

Ardence pointed out that two enhancements in particular - Common-Image functionality and a comprehensive architectural redesign of the Platform - will make it easier for customers to transition from their current Windows([R]) operating system environment to Windows Vista when the new Microsoft operating system becomes available later this year.

"Listening to our customers and channel partners, it was very clear that additional scalability was essential in order to accelerate adoption of our Platform in the enterprise. We've delivered that scalability with this latest version. Also, in their ongoing drive to manage as few images as possible, customers wanted the ability to stream an identical operating system/application image on-demand from the network to desktops and servers, irrespective of any hardware differences. With Common Image that breakthrough capability is now possible," said Richard J. Davis, Ardence Chairman, CEO and President.

Increased scalability and Common Image, coupled with Ardence's core OS/application streaming capability, will make it easier for customers to upgrade to Vista, Davis said. In the past, operating system changes have proven difficult, time-consuming and costly, but with the Ardence Software-Streaming Platform and Microsoft System Center, the challenges associated with an operating system conversion can be dramatically reduced.

"Take an Ardence customer today that is streaming a virtual Windows XP OS/applications image to the desktop. That customer can create and test a separate, virtual Vista/application image on their network. On reboot the new Vista image can be streamed out. If any challenges arise, the XP/applications image can be selected and on reboot the customer can return to the XP image. That instant rollout/rollback ability is further enhanced in 4.0," said Davis.

Significant Ardence 4.0 Enhancements

* Ardence 4.0's Common-Image functionality enables additional reductions in the number of operating system and application images customers need to maintain and manage. In earlier versions, Ardence's software-streaming capabilities enabled on-demand delivery of an identical OS/application image to multiple desktops from networked storage. However, until the release of 4.0, the number of identical images that IT departments had to maintain was dependent on the hardware the image was being streamed to. The more disparate the hardware, the more images that were required. With 4.0's Common Image, Ardence can stream an identical OS/application image to computers with different network interface cards (NICs), different chipsets and different audio and video cards.

IT managers at Time Warner Cable in Greensboro, NC, which participated in an Ardence 4.0 beta program, said Common Image has enabled them to provision all of its Call Center agent desktops from a single image.

* Ardence 4.0's architectural redesign has enabled increased scalability by taking advantage of technology advances in storage, in processors, in network interface cards (NICs), and in Gig-E networks that enable streamlined process communication by combining multiple processes into one integrated service. This results in less overhead and faster throughput.

The redesign also allows better utilization of higher-powered, multi-processor servers by changing from a single-threaded to a multi-threaded architecture. Additionally, that 4.0 system administration has been revamped and the user interface has been redesigned to be more intuitive - features that make it easier to manage clients in the network.

"With Ardence's 4.0 version, the product becomes more and more scalable, flexible and manageable. We are talking with many large, enterprise organizations that are looking closely at virtualization and streaming technologies. Ardence enables these organizations to also stream the operating system to the end users. They can do this reliably and with scalability, which gives these organizations greater flexibility in their IT environment," said Gerben Dijkstra, Product Manager at CDG Europe, an Ardence Partner, based in The Netherlands.

For Frank Yawn, IT manager at Time Warner Cable's Call Center in Greensboro, Common-Image functionality allowed his company to reach one of its primary goals - managing all Call Center agent desktops from a single OS/application image.

"We first deployed Ardence more than two years ago and earlier versions of the software enabled us to reduce the number of images we maintained and managed. That reduced the IT management workload and increased agent uptime. Now, with Ardence's introduction of Common-Image functionality we've achieved further image reductions. In fact we have 244 of our Call Center agents on a single image," said Yawn.

About Ardence (www.Ardence.com):

Ardence, Inc. is the global leader in developing secure, scalable, on-demand software platforms for deployment on desktops, in data centers and in devices throughout the enterprise. Founded in 1980, Ardence is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, and operates across North America, Europe, and Asia.