SAN MATEO, Calif. – Feb. 21, 2006 – Akimbi Systems, the leader in Virtual Lab Automation Systems, today announced that it has forged a channel partner relationship with Networld, the largest distributor of VMware’s solutions in Japan. As an Akimbi Authorized Distributor, Networld will market and resell Akimbi Slingshot, which enables Global 2000 corporations and packaged software and systems companies to automate and consolidate their software development test labs, streamlining processes and reducing capital expense.

"We are excited to launch our company and our product in the Japanese market and thrilled to have Japan’s premier distributor on our extended team,” said James Phillips, Akimbi Systems founder and CEO. "Virtualization technology adoption is on a rapid rise and the market is ripe for applications that leverage this underlying infrastructure. By joining with partners like Networld, we will greatly accelerate our ability to deliver powerful products that build on the power of virtualization and solve critical business problems for customers around the world.”

By leveraging virtual machine technology from companies like VMware and Microsoft, Akimbi Slingshot helps software development organizations address a number of critical challenges, including:

• server sprawl in the application development organization;
• the overhead of manual, time-consuming test setup and provisioning;
• the cost of system failures due to latent defects in software systems.

Akimbi Slingshot automates the rapid setup and teardown of complex configurations, and makes them available to users on a self-service basis, saving time and accelerating application development processes. With Akimbi Slingshot, organizations can pool and share servers, storage and network equipment resources, lowering the "server-to-staff ratio" and reducing capital expenditures.