WALNUT CREEK, CA – May 10, 2005 – Covalent Technologies, the most trusted source for open source since 1998, today announced the Covalent Certified Partner Program designed to provide customers with access to a trusted network of best-in-class software and hardware technology and service providers to make Open Source adoption more secure, reliable and simple than ever before across the enterprise. The first members of the Covalent Certified Partner Program include: ActiveGrid, Britestream Networks, Computer Associates (NYSE: CA), Hyperic, JBoss, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL), Sleepycat Software, and TIBCO Software (Nasdaq: TIBX).
Partners will only be awarded the classification of Covalent Certified once they have demonstrated their interoperability with Covalent’s Enterprise Ready Server (ERS), the most widely distributed Web infrastructure stack in Fortune 500 enterprises. Covalent ERS includes the Apache Web Server and the Tomcat Application Server, the two most widely deployed Open Source components in Fortune 500 enterprises. Only certified partners with solutions that are able to pass the series of rigorous QA test from Covalent’s Certification Labs will be approved to use the Covalent Certified logo.
Covalent Technologies has been the trusted source that Fortune 500 enterprises turn to when migrating to Open Source and when deploying new Open Source initiatives. By building a catalog of trusted partners that are Covalent Certified, Covalent Technologies provides assurance that both Open Source and proprietary technologies are: interoperable, manageable, reliable, secure, and consistent across the enterprise infrastructure.
“Pacific Life has been a Covalent customer for more than three years, and Covalent is our trusted source for products and services for all of our Open Source projects,†commented Scott Johnson, Assistant Vice President of Human Resource Technology at Pacific Life Insurance Company. “Covalent’s ERS makes it very easy for Pacific Life to make our Open Source environment more reliable and secure, especially with the high caliber of support and customization services they provide. It makes smart sense that Covalent is taking a stand and uniting critical infrastructure components into a best-of-breed ecosystem to simplify the complexities associated with making Open Source decisions.â€
“Covalent Technologies, one of the original technology innovators of the Open Source LAMP stack and a long-standing member of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), is recognized for having best-of-breed technology expertise and as a leader in promoting Open Source adoption,†remarked Peter Yared, Founder and CEO of ActiveGrid. “The Covalent Certified Partner Program mitigates many of the risks associated with deploying mission-critical applications on Open Source technologies by narrowing the wide array of confusing choices and by standing behind a select few high-quality components. We are very pleased to be part of such an elite group of partners.â€
“Our customers are deeply engaged in a variety of new initiatives ranging from migration from proprietary hardware/software to Open Source, service oriented architectures, and Web services, to the myriad of new regulatory compliance and security issues that arise everyday,†noted Mark Brewer, CEO of Covalent Technologies. “As our customers continue to place their trust in Covalent, we will continue to build a trusted network of best-of-breed partners with expertise to help enterprises run more efficiently, infrastructures become more manageable, and make the IT job easier, all the while helping our customers to continually reduce their total cost of software ownership.â€
About Covalent Technologies
Covalent Technologies is the leading provider of products and services for Tomcat and Apache, the world’s leading Web server, and the only source for full commercial support for Apache and Tomcat on a global basis. Covalent currently supports more than 50% of Fortune 500 and 70% of Fortune 100 companies. Customers include: SBC, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Johnson & Johnson, British Telecom, Fidelity Investments, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, General Electric, and Bear Stearns. Covalent has assembled the deepest talent pool of Apache experts in the industry and is proud to be one of the most distinguished supporters and stewards of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the dominant community for useable Open Source, and the Open Source community in general. For more information visit www.covalent.com.
###”
