CHICAGO, and LOWELL, Mass., Dec. 17 -- CohesiveFT, the leader in automated software assembly, today announced it has partnered with Virtual Iron, a provider of enterprise-class server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management software, to automate the deployment of Virtual Iron servers via the Elastic Server web-based factory. Elastic Server is an automated "factory" that allows IT professionals to assemble, deploy, and manage virtual servers using a simple point-and-click interface. Beginning today, customers can assemble custom Enterprise-class servers for deployment to the Virtual Iron format.

"CohesiveFT has created a compelling platform that reduces the complexity of creating production-ready virtual servers comprised of multi-sourced components," said Chris Barclay, director of product management at Virtual Iron. "Now, with the addition of Virtual Iron within Elastic Server, our customers can easily take advantage of existing Elastic Servers or create their own custom servers. CohesiveFT's create once, run anywhere platform simplifies deployments and gives customers choice of virtualization vendor. This is yet another way that Virtual Iron customers can do more with less."

The Elastic Server platform is a complement to virtualization and cloud offerings. Users assemble custom servers by choosing from a library of popular components. Once assembled, these custom application stacks can be configured to a variety of virtualization and cloud-ready formats, downloaded and deployed in real-time. Completed server stacks can be distributed through the Elastic Server platform. There are more than two thousand community users contributing nearly five thousand Elastic Servers to the market. The addition of Virtual Iron follows CohesiveFT's recent support for Amazon EC2 in Europe, the Ubuntu operating system, and the industry's first commercial cloud security solution, VPN-Cubed (http://www.cohesiveft.com/vpncubed).

"As we continue to expand the number of operating systems, virtualization formats, clouds, and number of components we support, our Elastic Server platform delivers on its promise to simplify the server assembly and management process," said Phil Clarke, managing director of professional services at CohesiveFT. "We look forward to helping fuel Virtual Iron's significant growth as more users gain access to our automated assembly environment."

Virtual Iron is available now via Elastic Server (http://elasticserver.com). For more information about deploying clusters of servers, contact sales@cohesiveft.com.

About Virtual Iron Software, Inc.

Virtual Iron provides server virtualization software that reduces the cost and complexity of operating and managing IT infrastructure for organizations of all sizes. Leveraging industry standards, open source, and built-in hardware-assisted acceleration, Virtual Iron provides a complete and cost-effective solution including VI-Center, an intelligent virtual infrastructure management platform. Over 2,000 customer organizations worldwide leverage Virtual Iron today to support a broad range of data center initiatives including server consolidation, virtual server management, dev/test optimization, business continuity and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) enablement. The software is available exclusively through Virtual Iron's Channel One partner network. Trial versions of the software are also available for free download at www.virtualiron.com/free. For more information, visit www.virtualiron.com.

About CohesiveFT

CohesiveFT enables customers to dynamically define and deploy servers for virtual environments and clouds. The company's flagship platform, Elastic Server, is a web-based "factory" for creating, deploying and managing custom, multi-sourced assemblies comprised of horizontal, open source and third-party software components. Elastic Servers can be saved as templates, updated, augmented, or redeployed in minutes. In addition to the self-service platform, the company offers packaged solutions for custom cloud implementations. CohesiveFT was founded in 2006 by principals with deep backgrounds in Enterprise IT, Commercial ISVs and multiple successful startups. CohesiveFT was listed among InformationWeek's "top cloud computing startups you should know." The company has offices in London, Chicago and Palo Alto. For more information, visit www.cohesiveft.com.