SWsoft Reports Record Growth and Success for 2005 in Server Virtualization and Automation

January 25, 2006; 07:08 AM

Herndon, VA — January 24, 2006 – Today, SWsoft, an established leader in server virtualization and automation software, announced that the company recognized another year of fast growth and success in 2005.  SWsoft grew its top line by more than 160 percent in the year, expanded office locations, doubled headcount globally to more than 600 employees, and developed and delivered important new product enhancements to new and existing customers.  Most significantly, the company continued to expand its leadership for developing solutions for service providers while successfully introducing its Virtuozzo server virtualization product to the enterprise market.

“SWsoft had another excellent year in terms of growth and execution against its business plan, and was one of the few VC-backed companies we’ve known to exceed its aggressive performance targets,” said Mike Triplett, Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners.  “The company continues to reap the benefits of its leadership in the under-the-radar but highly profitable service provider market, and its move into enterprise server virtualization came just as that market truly began to heat up.” 

Insight Venture Partners, along with Bessemer Venture Partners and Intel Capital, provided SWsoft with its first institutional round of investment in 2005. 

“Early last year we identified SWsoft as one of few innovative software companies poised to accelerate at an explosive rate,” said Jeremy Levine, Principal, Bessemer Venture Partners.  “The company surpassed all of our expectations in 2005.  It innovated and grew its industry-leading service provider business, and now its Virtuozzo server virtualization product is on the radar screen of major enterprise IT departments worldwide.”

Product Innovation

In 2005, SWsoft attained the milestone of more than 300,000 Virtuozzo virtual servers in production, while it unveiled Virtuozzo for Windows and provided major enhancements to its established Virtuozzo for Linux product.  The company delivered on its roadmap to support 64-bit server technologies from both Intel and AMD, making Virtuozzo the only server virtualization product offering full support for 32- and 64-bit platforms across all major operating systems and chip sets.

SWsoft also delivered to market its first two versions of SiteBuilder for Windows in partnership with Microsoft as well as major updates to its mutli-platform Plesk control panel, SiteBuilder for Linux, HSPcomplete and PEM datacenter automation solutions.  SWsoft closed 2005 with more than 10,000 customers around the globe, powering 120,000 servers at a growth rate of 10,000 new servers per month.

Company Expansion and Recognition

In 2005, SWsoft moved its US office to a new location to accommodate the company’s growth in the U.S.  In addition, the company opened sales offices in Japan, the U.K. and China, and formed SWsoft China through the acquisition of ValueOf Software Technology Co. Ltd, the leading Chinese server automation software company.  SWsoft is aggressively continuing this headcount growth, particularly in the U.S. where it looks to again double headcount in the coming year.

SWsoft and Virtuozzo were recognized for market success and excellence by numerous objective third parties in 2005, receiving “Top 50 Vendor” status from both IT Week and Service Provider Weekly magazines.  Virtuozzo for Linux was also named a Product Excellence Award finalist at the 2005 LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco.

“Last year represented several significant milestones for SWsoft and we look forward to producing even greater innovation and growth in 2006,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft.  “Our sustained track record in delivering real world automation and virtualization software solutions is a direct result of our hard-working global team, our growing list of partners and close working relationships with our expanding service provider and enterprise customer bases.”

About SWsoft

SWsoft is a recognized leader in server virtualization and automation software.  With more than 10,000 customers in over 100 countries, SWsoft's suite of products delivers proven performance, reliability, manageability and value. With offices around the world, SWsoft is a high growth company funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners and Intel Capital.  For more information about SWsoft, visit www.swsoft.com.