rPath Named “Most Innovative Software Idea”

SoftwareCEO and CompTIA Recognize rPath with Software Innovation Award

rPath™, provider of the first platform for creating and maintaining software and virtual appliances, today announced it has won the 2007 SoftwareCEO/CompTIA Software Innovation Award for Most Innovative Software Idea. Award winners were honored at the Computing Technology Industry Association’s (CompTIA) Annual Breakaway Conference on August 1 in Las Vegas.

CompTIA is the leading trade association for the world’s information technology industry. The inaugural SoftwareCEO/CompTIA Software Innovation Awards recognize innovative software products and new business models in eight different categories. Award winners were selected by an esteemed panel of software industry executives, and judged on scope, impact and novelty. Judges examined the business problem or opportunity the software innovation addresses, the practical results of the innovation and the degree to which the product or company broke with traditional ideas or processes.

“The software industry is driven by its ability to develop innovative ideas; and to turn those innovations into products that deliver real business value to customers. rPath’s software appliance approach allows application providers to expand into new markets, open new channels of distribution and reduce development costs,” stated David Sommer, vice president, e-business and software solutions, CompTIA. “Like all the winners, rPath epitomizes the software industry’s creativity and innovative spirit.”

A software appliance is an application combined with a streamlined operating system, offered in a format that runs on industry standard hardware or in virtualized environments. rPath’s rBuilder, the engine for creating and maintaining software appliances, combines applications with system software and then delivers the resulting software appliance to the end customer. The rPath Appliance Platform provides a web-based interface for configuring and maintaining software appliances, performing key tasks such as update management, application configuration, license management, and backup.

“Innovation is at the core of rPath and our technology,” stated Billy Marshall, CEO and founder of rPath. “This award is continued validation that the software appliance model will have a significant impact on the software industry.”

A list of all the SoftwareCEO/CompTIA Software Innovation Award winners can be found at: http://www.softwareceo.com/awards/innovation_winners.php.

About rPath
rBuilder and rPath Appliance Platform transform applications into software appliances. Software appliances simplify server applications by eliminating the hassles of installation, configuration, and maintenance. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can expand their markets and simultaneously reduce development and support costs by adopting the software appliance approach. rPath is also the first and only company to automate support for all the major virtualization formats. The company is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, visit http://www.rpath.com.

About CompTIA
In 2007, CompTIA is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Just as the information technology (IT) industry it serves has grown, CompTIA has also enjoyed remarkable growth over the past 25 years. The organization was founded by representatives of five micro-computer dealerships working together to find better ways to do business. Today, CompTIA has more than 22,000 member companies in over 100 countries around the world; and serves as the voice of the world’s $1 trillion-plus IT industry. CompTIA is committed to advancing the long-term success and growth of the IT industry by helping organizations maximize the benefits they receive from their investments in technology; and by helping individuals to obtain the skills and credentials they need for productive careers in IT. For more information, please visit: www.comptia.org.

About SoftwareCEO
SoftwareCEO is a resource-packed electronic newsletter and web portal built by software executives for software executives. It’s the software industry’s “Page One” for information and advice on software marketing, software sales, software business, software pricing and financing, and software services. SoftwareCEO is published by CompTIA. For more information, visit http://www.softwareceo.com.