Surgient announced that it was about to release a new version of its Virtual Lab Management Application - version 5.3. The company's software enables its customers to automate and enhance their software development and QA/Testing processes. But unlike their competition in this market, the product doesn't simply focus on QA/Testing. Instead, Surgient also focuses on other virtual lab management use cases such as Surgient announced that it was about to release a new version of its Virtual Lab Management Application – version 5.3. The company’s software enables its customers to automate and enhance their software development and QA/Testing processes. But unlike their competition in this market, the product doesn’t simply focus on QA/Testing. Instead, Surgient also focuses on other virtual lab management use cases such as training, marketing, sales and support.Each of these use cases or organizations can leverage the software to help substantially eliminate the time and cost involved with manually deploying, configuring and tearing down complex environments. And doing so allows each to become more productive and efficient at their specific job function. The new features found in version 5.3 include: Advanced, agentless networking – NAIL Server enables complex networking between guest images without requiring a management agent, accelerating deployment and allowing the virtual lab environment to more effectively replicate a wider array of production configurations. Universal Remote Access 2.0 – With a higher performing remote access and firewall transversal system, Surgient v5.3 provides enhanced global access to a centrally deployed virtual lab anytime, from anywhere. Advanced Calendaring System – An advanced calendar capability allows lab managers to adequately schedule and keep track of current and future lab usage and reservations. Version 5.3 also features improved lab reporting that enables metered self-service. Reporting Customization and Enhancements – New to version 5.3 is the ability to customize and extend reporting capabilities, enabling the extraction of specific business information such as usage information to enable chargeback billing, allowing integration with business intelligence tools, CRM systems and enterprise dashboards. The company also announced that its Virtual QA/Test Lab Management System (VQMS) software is now being resold by HP as a component of the HP Quality Center. The VQMS product seems like a natural fit to help extend the Mercury testing software provided by HP. Before testing with the Mercury software can take place, developers and QA/Testers need to provision the test configuration environment. This is where Surgient’s software comes into play. VQMS consolidates pre-production infrastructure and automates the provisioning of test configurations in an on-demand fashion. HP Quality Center integration enables testers and testing tools to reliably request and securely access test configurations 24×7. “Test lab automation is fast becoming an essential element of an enterprise quality management strategy because of the breakthrough gains in time and cost savings it delivers,” said Jonathan Rende, vice president, Products, Software, HP. Software Development