Read this white paper to learn how rPath provides the only systematic approach to the software appliance lifecycle. You can also take a guided tour of an appliance running 'in the cloud'. From appliance creation and validation through setup, maintenance and licensing, you'll see that with rPath you avoid the issues inherent in ad hoc approaches:

• Automates key portions of the appliance-building process to reduce errors and ensure appliance can be rebuilt in a repeatable way
• Automates identification of dependencies among software components to minimize footprint and reduce maintenance burden up to 90%
• Automatically validates appliance build using over 50 built-in policies that check for problems, track component licenses and report on cryptography for U.S. export filing process
• Provides pre-built, customizable and extensible web management interface
• Automates generation of multiple virtual appliances able to support virtualization formats from VMware, Microsoft, Citrix/XenSource, Amazon EC2, Parallels, Red Hat, Novell, and Oracle
• Automates update and license management to simplify appliance maintenance over entire lifecycle