OPSWARE ACHIEVES HIGHEST RANKING IN DATA CENTER AUTOMATION REPORT FOR LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

New Report from Leading Research Firm Names Opsware Leader in Lifecycle Management and Top Two Current Offering Ranking for Utility Computing

Sunnyvale, CA -- January 18, 2005 - The recently issued Data Center Automation report from Forrester Research, which evaluated eight companies, gives Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ: OPSW) the top ranking for Lifecycle Management of servers, software, network devices and storage. In addition Opsware received the second highest current offering ranking for Utility Computing next to IBM. Opsware was among the select companies that Forrester evaluated in its January 2005 Forrester Wave report, Selecting A Data Center Automation Vendor. The eight vendors featured in this report, Opsware, IBM, HP, Veritas, Sun, BladeLogic, Altiris and BMC, were evaluated based on key data center automation capabilities such as automated configuration management, compliance management, scalability, integration, patching and reporting. In giving Opsware the highest ranking for Lifecycle Management, Forrester rated Opsware's scalability and integration capabilities the highest compared to all other vendors evaluated.

Forrester senior analyst Galen Schreck credits Opsware as having "the strongest support for highly distributed data centers," and highlights in the report that "Opsware is extremely customizable and can model even the most complex application environments." Forrester also notes that Opsware has taken the lead at building in network management capabilities to its leading server automation solution with the acquisition of a complete network management solution, Rendition Networks.

Responding to the top rating, Opsware Inc. President and CEO Ben Horowitz commented, "Customers and analysts alike are recognizing the superiority of the Opsware System. Our leadership position validates our product strengths and investment in continuing to develop the best IT automation solution on the market today. With the addition of network automation, Opsware will further its market leadership by enabling enterprises to automate even more elements that comprise today's complex IT environments, and realize the immense benefits of utility computing."

The growth of the Internet is driving a shift from client/server computing to Web architecture. With this shift comes an overwhelming proliferation of servers, networking devices and applications, creating massive complexity that makes an automated IT model a necessity. The Opsware System automates the complete IT lifecycle and delivers utility computing by enabling IT to automatically provision, patch, configure, secure, change, scale, audit, recover, consolidate, migrate, and reallocate servers and applications.

About Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ: OPSW)

Opsware Inc. is the world's leading IT automation and utility computing software company. The growth of the Internet is driving a shift from client/server computing to Web architecture. With this shift comes an overwhelming proliferation of servers, networking devices and applications, creating massive complexity that makes an automated IT model a necessity. Opsware automates the complete IT lifecycle and delivers utility computing by enabling IT to automatically provision, patch, configure, secure, change, scale, audit, recover, consolidate, migrate, and reallocate servers, network devices and applications. Over 280 of the world's largest companies, outsourcers and government agencies use Opsware to deliver this new, automated model of IT. For more information on Opsware Inc., please visit our Web site at www.opsware.com.

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Opsware is a service mark and trademark of Opsware Inc. All other product names, service marks, and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.