Unisys and Avanade to Bring Solutions to Win 2000/.NET

Unisys Corporation and Avanade Inc, two of Microsoft Corp's leading global partners, announced an agreement in principle to deliver Avanade next-generation, mission-critical e-business solutions based on Unisys server platforms.

The two companies will deliver solutions based on the industry-standard Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server as well as Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server applications to solve specific e-business challenges.

This alliance will leverage the Avanade and Unisys global technology, services and expertise in enterprise computing, providing customers with unprecedented levels of scalability, availability and manageability for Microsoft-based environments in the data center. The solutions delivered by this alliance will integrate complete e-business technologies and support customers' needs to achieve levels of performance and reliability previously available only in a mainframe or large-scale UNIX environment.

Together the two companies will

• Provide customers with the advanced mainframe-class enterprise capabilities of the Unisys ES7000 and the Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server network operating system.
• Assist customers in accelerating time to market and provide the high levels of availability that are essential to demanding e-business environments.
• Offer customers the benefit of the Unisys worldwide services infrastructure comprising some 9,000 service personnel who support the delivery of Managed Network Services. Unisys service engineers and consultants provide world-class ISO 9001 certified managed deployment and support services for the Microsoft enterprise environment globally.

Over the past year, the increased capabilities of the Windows 2000 platform to support transaction-intensive e-business -- enabling a faster time to market and lower overall costs -- has dramatically spurred demand by large-scale enterprises for highly available and scalable e-business solutions based on Microsoft technology.

"Both Unisys and Avanade have expertise in Microsoft Windows 2000 design and architecture," said Brian Valentine, senior vice president of Windows at Microsoft. "These skills, combined with Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing technology and global deployment resources, will establish a new level of capability to build and deploy Microsoft .NET offerings for mission critical solutions in the data center."

Avanade and Unisys will work together to optimize the performance of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server applications on the Unisys ES7000, packaging scalable solutions to provide rapid deployment, reduce price/performance and cost of ownership, and offer mission-critical support to customers, while maximizing the performance of hardware, software, and end-to-end life-cycle support and services.

"The demand for highly available and scalable solutions on the Microsoft platform has increased dramatically over the past year," said Ashish Kumar, chief technology officer of Avanade. "Teaming Avanade's deep architectural expertise on Microsoft products and platforms with Unisys ES7000 technology and global deployment resources makes it possible for us to deliver innovative solutions with high performance and availability."

"Unisys expertise in enterprise services and support is an excellent complement to Avanade's Microsoft-focused mission and portfolio, and our ES7000 server is the ideal platform for Avanade solutions," said Irv Epstein, Unisys vice president, Corporate Alliances. "Together, we offer performance and availability previously possible only on proprietary or large-scale UNIX systems."

The Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000

The Unisys ES7000 provides an array of computing capabilities required for enterprise-class e-business computing and well known to users of large-scale computers, but unprecedented in computing environments using Microsoft and Intel technology. Designed for the power of future Intel IA-64 Itanium processors, the ES7000 is based on Unisys revolutionary Cellular Multi-Processing (CMP) architecture. A de-facto-standard architecture for large-scale Microsoft- and Intel-based servers, CMP technology is also sold by Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi and ICL.

The ES7000 accommodates up to 32 Intel Pentium III Xeon processors, which can be field-upgraded to Intel IA-64 Itanium processors when that technology becomes available or combined with Itanium processors in the same server. These advantages enable the ES7000 to match the performance of UNIX systems in enterprise-class e-business and other critical applications at a fraction of the price.

About Avanade

Avanade Inc is a new company created by Microsoft and Accenture (formerly known as Andersen Consulting) to deliver scalable, leading-edge technology and Internet-based solutions based on the Microsoft enterprise platform. Avanade develops and delivers enterprise and Internet technology solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, emerging market-makers, and Internet start-ups.

Avanade applies deep technical acumen to design and implement a scalable technology infrastructure in addition to the mission-critical solutions required to improve profitability, gain speed to market, and fuel growth. Avanade has over 1,000 employees in offices across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Additional information can be found on the Avanade Web site at www.avanade.com.

About Unisys

Unisys is an e-business solutions company whose 37,000 employees help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure required by business and government to transform their organizations for success in this new era.

The company offers a rich portfolio of Unisys e-@ction Solutions for e-business based on its expertise in vertical industry solutions, network services, outsourcing, systems integration and multivendor support, coupled with enterprise-class server and related technologies. The primary vertical markets Unisys serves worldwide include financial services, transportation, communications, publishing and commercial sectors, as well as the public sector, including federal government customers.

Unisys is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, in the Greater Philadelphia area. For more information on the company, access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web at www.unisys.com.

Contact Unisys, Steve Holzman, 215-986-5098, stephen.holzman@unisys.com or Avanade, Roniya Sheffer, 415-591-4105, roniya_sheffer@sfo.bm.com.