mValent, Inc. (http://www.mvalent.com), a leading provider of automated IT configuration management solutions for managing application infrastructure, today announced the results of a survey of Fortune 1000 IT professionals conducted in March 2007. The survey results yield deep insight into the challenges of managing the complex, multi-vendor layers of application infrastructure that support mission-critical business applications and services. Within one week, more than 300 senior IT professionals responded, underscoring the top-of-mind nature and importance of these subjects.

Key survey findings include:

* Each hour of application downtime costs Fortune 1000 companies in excess of $300,000, according to nearly one-third of respondents at companies that track the business cost and impact. Thus avoiding even a single hour of downtime cost-justifies IT automation and trouble-shooting tools such as mValent Integrity(TM).

* Troubleshooting configuration errors with application servers, middleware and databases requires more than one working day, according to more than one-third of respondents. Complexity of the multi-tier application infrastructure leads to this lengthy troubleshooting process and yields unacceptably high application downtime, according to leading industry analyst firms including Gartner and Forrester.

* IT configuration and change management is a team sport: most Fortune 1000 companies employ more than 11 people to manage configuration changes to core application infrastructure assets (application servers, Web servers, middleware, databases and operating systems). Combining a large management staff with a high number of 'moving parts' in the application infrastructure clearly promotes high errors and instability in the application environment.

* Installation and configuration of core application infrastructure assets continues to be a "major time sink" for most IT teams. According to the majority of respondents, installing and configuring a complete application infrastructure stack requires more than four working days.

* Owing to the factors above, the need for automated application configuration, change and release management tools has become crystal clear within Fortune 1000 companies - more than 61% of responding companies report they have invested in or plan to invest in these tools in 2007.

* The HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB) was the preferred CMDB solution among survey respondents who expressed a preference.

"Our survey results highlight the significant risk and hard-dollar costs associated with managing the increased IT complexity that's due in large part to the rapid proliferation of distributed applications," said Jim Hickey, Chief Marketing Officer with mValent. "Our survey results mirror what we're hearing from our Fortune 500 customers - automated tools are required to find the needles in the haystack that cause application infrastructure failures, test and deploy fixes immediately, rapidly build out new application environments as needed and automate change reporting for compliance."

About mValent

mValent tackles IT complexity and compliance with automation software that eliminates configuration management chaos in application infrastructure. The company's flagship product, mValent Integrity, automates application configuration management and is used by leading organizations to manage the build and maintenance of complex application configurations throughout their entire lifecycle - from development to production. mValent Integrity customers include leading companies such as Alltel, State Street Bank, National Grid, and WorldWinner. The company is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts and is backed by top-tier venture capital firms, including Charles River Ventures, IDG Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. For more information, visit http://www.mvalent.com.