Author: JT Smith
Paris, France & Newburyport, USA – 20 September 2000
CYRANO today confirmed the availability of OpenSTAâ„¢ (Open System Testing Architecture) on
27 September 2000, and disclosed information on the pre-subscription program to ease the
implementation of the product for the Open Source community of developers.
“E-commerce sites need to be able to predict how their systems will behave under load, giving them
the ability to ensure that their systems are reliable and stable enough to meet established timelines
for deployment and produce expected revenue.”
“Almost every month new Web development tools and techniques are released allowing users to
create more attractive, and therefore more visited, web sites. Because the CIOs cannot be sure that
these new features or hardware changes are not slowing down their site’s performance, they need to
test the site after each change.”
“Investing in a proprietary capture and replay tool to simulate realistic load of thousands of virtual
users may be wasting money if the evolution of such a tool is not fast enough. This certainly can
dramatically increase the Total Cost of Ownership of such a tool.”, said Noelle Beaudin, Marketing
Product Manager for OpenSTA.
OpenSTAâ„¢ Capabilities
OpenSTAâ„¢ (Open System Testing Architecture) is a distributed software testing architecture based
on CORBA. OpenSTAâ„¢ is designed to be used by Performance Testing Consultants or other
technically proficient individuals. Using OpenSTAâ„¢ a user can generate realistic heavy loads
simulating the activity of hundreds to thousands of virtual users, whatever the development
languages used. This capability is fully realized through OpenSTAâ„¢’s distributed testing
architecture.
Project managers will benefit from precise performance measurement and analysis which can be
gathered during load tests. OpenSTAâ„¢ graphs both virtual user response times and resource
utilization information from all Web Servers, Application Servers, database servers and Operating
Platforms under test. Consequently they can be sure that the company’s Web site will accommodate
the expected growth in customer load.
Release Date and Source code availability
In its first release the product toolset will have the capability of performing HTTP and HTTPS load
tests with performance measurement. The source code will be maintained on Sourceforge.net,
beginning with the 0.9.0 developer release, on 27 September 2000.
The OpenSTAâ„¢ source code and installable have been prepared to operate in a Windows NT 4 or
Windows 2000 environment. Plans for porting to all major platforms are in the works.
Open Source developers that are interested in participating in the OpenSTAâ„¢ project can find the
source hosted at link as of 27 September 2000. SourceForge is the premier provider of hosting
services for on-line Open Source projects.
CYRANO will offer services around OpenSTA
Around the OpenSTAâ„¢ project, CYRANO will be offering support, consulting and training services,
bespoke feature enhancements, and printed documentation and CD sets. OpenSTAâ„¢ software will
remain free and open, while services and product associated with the software can be acquired for a
fee.
“Until recently, companies have made objections about implementing Open Source due to the lack of
any organized support model. CYRANO will be offering full support, consulting and training services
specifically for OpenSTAâ„¢” said Noelle Beaudin, Marketing Product Manager for OpenSTA. “So
that you not only get use of a completely open and aggressively evolving tool, you also get access
to a dedicated team to help you support it in your environment.”
Support Agreement Pre-subscription sign up
As part of an incentive to register users for OpenSTAâ„¢ 1.0.0, which is expected some time in
December 2000, CYRANO will offer a pre-subscription sign up. Users will be able to receive
OpenSTAâ„¢ 1.0.0 printed documentation and CD set, one week consulting and training, and a year’s
Support license by pre-subscribing during the release of 0.9.0. The pre-subscription sign up will be
heavily discounted. To find out more about the pre-subscription, please visit opensta.com. The
definitive terms and conditions will be disclosed on 27 September 2000.
CYRANO and Open Source
“Open Source software has a proven reliability track record and this is something CYRANO was
keenly interested in capturing,”, concluded Robert Ernens, Chairman and CEO of CYRANO, “It’s
much more effective to market any product on the basis of reliability. As an executive in control of
my company I am keenly aware of the fact that reliability reduces total cost of ownership and
business risk. Open Source provides the capability for the executive to be in control of these two
critical business issues. Dotcom and Dotcorp organizations are facing the same challenges and
OpenSTAâ„¢ is the unique answer for them.”
About CYRANO
CYRANO is a public company listed on the EuroNM of the Paris Bourse (Reuters: CYRA.LN,
Sicovam 3922). Formed in 1989, CYRANO is headquartered in Paris, France, with regional
headquarters in the UK and USA.
CYRANO, is one of the world leaders in Web performance, security and application management.
CYRANO competes with ISS (Nasdaq: ISSX), Axent (Nasdaq: AXNT), and Networks Associates Inc.
(Nasdaq: NETA) for vulnerability assessment tools and services.
OpenSTA is a trademark of CYRANO
Other trademarks, service marks and company names are the property of their respective owners
Contacts
In Paris, France:
Philippe de La Gardette
+ 33 1 5633 4000
pdlg@cyrano.com
In Newburyport, MA:
Noelle Beaudin
+ 1 800 714 4900
+ 1 978 462 4755
nobeau@cyrano.com
