Openbravo, the company with the open source SME ERP solution, has tied up with rPath to create a software appliance using rPath's rBuilder, Openbravo's first commercial product.

An appliance should simplify deploying and maintaining the software in both physical and virtual environments - not to mention making life a bit easier for the Openbrave folks - they'll have a product they can warranty.

The company says routine maintenance such as scheduling backups or updating the software will be possible with a browser interface. And Openbravo will be able to tweak the operating systems to the application and maximize performance.

Users won't have to manually update the software.

The move is a step toward the anticipated Openbravo Network, a support contract for its applications due to launched next month, same time as the appliance.

Up until now Openbravo has been living off of per-hour second-level support and consulting. Now it'll be able to sell SLAs.