Press Release

Network Attached Processing Opens up Technology, Sales and Marketing Opportunities for Enterprise Java Developers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California – September 27, 2005 –Azul Systems®, the pioneer of the industry’s first network attached processing solution designed to unbound compute resources for virtual machine based applications such as those based on the Java™ and J2EE™platforms, today formally announced a three-tiered independent software vendor (ISV) Partner Program designed to leverage the benefits of the Azul compute pool and build innovative web enabled applications unfettered by compute resource constraints. The program has already met with industry interest having seen more than 95 applications already verified to work seamlessly with the Azul Compute Appliance. Such interest indicates pent-up industry demand for the benefits offered by network attached processing, a solution that optimizes performance levels and ensures unfailing service levels to help companies compete successfully in today’s service-oriented world.

Azul ISV partners develop, sell, and support commercial software that takes advantage of network attached processing. They may develop for, recommend, or offer Azul Compute Appliances in conjunction with their business offerings.

"Customers win when their choices expand, and this program is designed to prove the benefits of network attached processing with as many Java applications as possible," said Stephen DeWitt, CEO of Azul Systems. "By tapping in to the massive amounts of processing power brought to the table by Azul Systems, our software partners are creating a bold new world of applications that will support tomorrow’s web-enabled enterprises."

Elements of the Azul ISV Partner Program
The Azul ISV Partner Program offers three tiers of application certification, each delivering a higher level of proven customer benefit and integration than the prior level. The three tiers are:

Azul Verified: for commercially available applications that have been verified to interoperate with the Azul solution without code modification. Over 95 applications serving multiple vertical industries such as financial services, telecommunications, e-business, manufacturing and others have already been verified to work with the Azul solution.

Optimized for Azul: for Azul Verified applications whose configuration has been tuned to achieve maximum scalability and performance on the Azul Compute Appliance. Configuration settings and the achieved results are published and available to customers.

Built for Azul: for applications that have been designed or modified to exploit unique advantages made possible with the Azul solution, delivering market-leading innovative capabilities and performance that can be achieved only when both products are present.

Network Attached Processing Ecosystem
Azul compute pools bring unprecedented levels of processing power to enterprises, enabling Azul partners to take part in the next wave of enterprise application innovation. The Azul ISV Partner Program expands the ecosystem of applications that are optimized to help customers simplify and accelerate their migration from legacy environments to service-oriented architectures - all while protecting customers’ existing infrastructure investments. Partners across the board have expressed resounding support for the move to network attached processing made possible through Azul compute pools:

"For today’s Java implementations, simplicity is the name of the game, and Azul is working with us to bring that promise to our customers," said Steve Montal, director of sales and strategic partnerships, Caucho Technology, Inc.. The Caucho Resin application server is Azul Verified. "By working together with Azul to ensure our customers get faster, more reliable web services, we allow them to focus on their core businesses and remain competitive."

"We see Azul Systems as providing the increased performance and throughput demanded by customers of CICS without the cost overhead of additional OS-visible mainframe processors," said LH Couch, vice president of sales for LegacyJ. "The question, ‘Can you run large batch Cobol programs on a Java virtual machine?' is no longer an issue."

"We believe in the power of Java applications to drive future generations of Web commerce, and are working hand in hand with Azul to make that future a reality," said Geva Perry, executive vice president of business development for GigaSpaces, an Azul ISV partner with Azul Verified application of the same name. "Our goal is to help large enterprises in the financial services, telecommunications, and defense industries rapidly develop and deploy distributed applications over a reliable but low-cost infrastructure, in which Azul compute appliances are a critical component."

"Enterprises demand the highest possible performance and IT efficiency in order to remain competitive in today’s markets," said Lewis Cirne, founder and CTO of Wily Technology Inc., the maker of Azul Verified Introscope, the market leading Java application performance monitoring and management solution. "By melding our low-overhead management solutions with the detailed information that Azul appliances gather, customers can improve the productivity and profitability of their utility computing environments."

About Azul Systems
Azul Systems® has pioneered the industry's first network attached processing solution, designed to unbound compute resources for virtual machine based applications. Without application level modifications, binary compatibility requirements or operating system dependencies, this fundamentally new approach eliminates the need to capacity plan at the application level and dramatically lowers the cost and complexity associated with the traditional delivery of computing resources. More information on Azul Systems can be found at www.azulsystems.com.

Legal Notices
Azul Systems and Azul are registered trademarks and the Azul arch logo is a trademark of Azul Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All Java based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Caucho and Resin are registered trademarks of Caucho Technology, Inc. LegacyJ and names of LegacyJ products are trademarks or registered trademarks of LegacyJ Corporation. GigaSpaces™ and GigaSpaces products are registered trademarks of GigaSpaces™ Technologies Ltd. Other marks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for identification purposes.

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