ASG's metaCMDB(R) Earns "On Fire" Vendor Rating From Leading Independent Research Firm

NAPLES, FL--(Marketwire - June 25, 2009) - ASG Software Solutions, the originator of ASG's Business Service Portfolio™ (BSP™) and a worldwide leader in business solutions for global enterprises, today announced it has received an overall rating of "On Fire" in the "heat factor" evaluation scale used in the Forrester Research June "Tech Horizons: ASG's metaCMDB, The Technology That Rocks" report. Tech Horizons, a series of vendor strategy reports, identifies potential emerging markets and outlines key criteria for evaluating new solutions and assessing their viability.

In addition to validating the metadata repository of ASG-Rochade®, the underlying technology of ASG's metaCMDB, the Forrester report reinforced the value of configuration management database (CMDB) deployments as a "system" -- more specifically, as a federated configuration management system (CMS) comprised of multiple CMDBs, monitoring tools, and data stores.

ASG's metaCMDB "actually resembles a CMS more than a CMDB," writes Forrester, because of its federated technology and step-by-step implementation via ASG's Path to Optimization. While the Forrester report acknowledges that few enterprises have started to implement a CMS, it predicts that "the CMS will actually replace the CMDB as the main implementation scheme as early as 2010."

Report highlights:

Market heat factor: ASG's "easier path" to building true federation and eventually a CMS resolves one of the main problems organizations are facing in their CMDB implementations, according to Forrester: "building a CMDB that is effectively useful for the diverse activities of IT service delivery." This ability, combined with ASG's longstanding experience in IT management software (ITMS), led Forrester to rate the market heat factor for ASG's metaCMDB at its highest.

Adoption: Forrester anticipates the likelihood of the adoption of ASG's metaCMDB to be "excellent" based on its technical and economic advantages, which include solution "simplicity," "stepped implementation," the ability to federate data across managed data repositories, and quick time to value.

Implementation: Forrester grants ASG's metaCMDB a perfect rating in this section of the report for the "outstanding value" it presents in its deployment. From the very first step, Forrester observes, ASG's technology allows "any technology group in an IT operation [to] implement the data store and immediately see the benefits."

According to the Tech Horizons report, ASG has made "spectacular progress" over the past three years, due to its "aggressive marketing of its BSM solution." The report also acknowledges that ASG's metaCMDB, as the hub of ASG's BSM solution (ASG's BSP) and cornerstone to the more advanced steps of ASG's Path to Optimization, "clears the pathway for creating a federated CMS as defined by ITIL."(1)

Supporting Resources

-- Forrester Research Report: Tech Horizons: ASG's MetaCMDB, The Technology That Rocks

-- Related press release: ASG's Path to Optimization Approach Validated By Leading Organizations

-- Related white paper: How to Populate Your CMDB in Four Steps

-- Web page: ASG's metaCMDB

-- On-demand webcast: How a Configuration Management Database Can Help You Survive an Economic Hurricane presented by ASG and featuring Forrester Research, Inc.

About ASG | www.asg.com

ASG provides software solutions to more than 85 percent of the world's largest companies. Through its comprehensive Business Service Management (BSM) solution, Business Service Portfolio™, ASG is an established BSM provider with a strong heritage in metadata management; information management; applications management; infrastructure, performance, and operations management; and service and support technologies. ASG enables clients to reduce costs, improve business-service delivery, and reduce risks. Founded in 1986, ASG is a privately held company based in Naples, Florida, USA, with more than 90 offices worldwide.

(1) Tech Horizons: ASG's MetaCMDB, The Technology That Rocks, Forrester Research, Inc., June 2009