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Early Tivoli Backer Norwest Venture Partners Invests in KACE

Global institutional investor to accelerate development of IT automation appliance aimed at Fortune 100,000 organizations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - May 22, 2006 - KACE™, the leader in IT automation appliances for Fortune 100,000 organizations, today announced that a leading group of institutional investors led by Norwest Venture Partners, an early investor in Tivoli software, have agreed to invest $8 million in the company. Sigma Partners, an existing investor, is also participating. Robert Abbott, general partner at Norwest Venture Partners, will join Peter Solvik, Managing Director of Sigma Partners and the former CIO of Cisco Systems, on KACE's board of directors.

KACE develops the KBOX™ IT Management Suite that is used to manage more than 45,000 Microsoft Windows computers in Fortune 100,000 organizations around the world. The KBOX can be deployed in less than 30 minutes and brings effective systems and security management to organizations that want to avoid the complexity, cost, and time required to deploy traditional software-based IT management systems.

The new investment round will allow KACE to expand research and development of additional KBOX appliances and bring more high-end management features previously accessible only to IT executives in Fortune 1000 companies to smaller teams of IT staff in mid-market organizations. KACE's appliance strategy is critical in lowering support costs, increasing reliability and bringing enterprise functionality to smaller organizations.

In the last year, KACE has introduced three new capabilities for the KBOX: Security Enforcement and Audit, Policy Scripting, and Help Desk. With the new investment, KACE intends to accelerate development of additional features that customers have requested.

"Products to automate IT management have seen wide adoption in larger enterprises, but until KACE, no products existed with this much functionality for mid-market organizations. Without automation, IT staff in this underserved market must spend enormous amounts of time managing security and general IT asset problems," said Robert Abbott, general partner at Norwest Venture Partners. "By selling its software embedded in an appliance, KACE is able to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of its solution - bringing enterprise functionality to the mid-sized market."

Mid-market organizations of all types use the KBOX to reduce IT management costs in markets such as manufacturing, legal, healthcare, financial services and government. KACE customers include Holland Company LP (manufacturing); Benchmark Group (design services firm); the City of Reno (local government) and Freedom Mortgage (financial services).

"We're looking forward to working with a great team of people at Norwest Venture Partners who have a tremendous amount of experience working with companies like Tivoli to gain leadership in enterprise markets," said Rob Meinardt, CEO of KACE. "Fortune 100,000 organizations are facing tremendous problems dealing with increasing security and systems issues. By selling a well-tested solution in an appliance, KACE is in a unique position to solve these problems with products priced at levels these organizations can afford."

About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 45 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: semiconductor and components, enterprise and communication systems, software, services, consumer Internet and media. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California, USA.

NVP has funded over 400 companies since inception. Recent NVP transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance) and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Brocade Communications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). Additional information on Norwest Venture Partners is available at www.nvp.com.

About KACE™
KACE, a privately-held technology company, is the leader in IT automation appliances. The KBOX™ by KACE product line delivers easy-to-use, comprehensive IT automation appliances that are affordable and really work. KACE is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois. To learn more about KACE and its product offerings, please visit www.kace.com or call 1-888-522-3638.

©KACE 2006. KACE is a trademark of KACE Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Editorial Contact:
Bret Clement
Page One PR
(303) 462-3057
bret@pageonepr.com