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Xwave AND HP ANNOUNCE CREATION OF ENTERPRISE STORAGE CENTRE

xwave announced with HP the creation of an Enterprise Storage Centre, housed in xwave's 60,000-square-foot Moncton data centre. The centre will serve as one of the only sites in Atlantic Canada to allow businesses and other organizations to view, test and validate best practices and proofs of concept in utility-based enterprise data storage management.

HP provided $1 million worth of Storage Area Network (SAN) technology to the new centre.

With the amount of data stored by computers doubling annually, storage management solutions becoming increasingly complex and the need to implement data protection and recovery solutions greater than ever, a rapidly growing number of enterprises are looking for viable SAN solutions to address these needs. These solutions are, in fact, becoming a focal point of many of today's eBusiness infrastructures.

According to the Gartner Group, storage spending currently accounts for up to 55 percent of total hardware expenditure, and for every dollar spent on hardware, it's estimated another $8 is spent managing the system. HP's SAN solutions are designed to help customers reduce the total cost of ownership on data storage infrastructure.

Building on its strategic relationship with HP, xwave is pleased to acknowledge that it has achieved the highest partner designation-National Platinum-in Compaq Canada's Premier Partner Program. xwave is one of only six companies to have achieved such status in the program, which acknowledges nationally based partners for their sales efforts, commitment to customer service, and their numbers of HP-certified engineers.

"HP's National Platinum accreditation and SAN contribution to the xwave Enterprise Storage Centre help demonstrate to clients our expertise in HP products," said Bill Davis, xwave's Vice President of Fulfillment Solutions. "With HP being one of our largest reseller partners, we want to ensure we provide clients with the very best support for the HP solutions we deliver."

"xwave is an important partner to HP, playing a key role in helping us educate the market that enterprise storage requires more implementation help, more managed services and more professional services than the traditional breakfix -repair cycle associated with functional technology management," said Geoff Coutts, Business Unit Manager, Storage Solutions, HP Canada.

xwave's team of technicians and engineers-growing at a rate of about 25 percent year-over-year-includes a group of approximately 100 HP-trained specialists who provide complete solution-design, application-development, product-fulfillment, networking and support services.

xwave has long partnered with leading technology providers such as HP to deliver end-to-end solutions. xwave provides complete IT services, ranging from strategic consulting to determine clients' needs, through to the provision of hardware and software to fulfill those needs. One of these services xwave is data-storage management, through solutions such as the Enterprise Storage Centre in Moncton.

"Storage-management technology is a strategic focus for xwave-and HP is our preferred partner for developing managed services and solutions," said Ray Miller, xwave's vice president of Infrastructure Services. "Our intent at xwave is to build on our solid relationship with HP and be the dominant player in Atlantic Canada-and, ultimately, be HP's preferred go-to-market partner Canada-wide."

About xwave

xwave delivers complete IT services to clients through three service lines: systems integration and software engineering, infrastructure services, and product fulfillment. These areas offer clients a broad delivery capability: xwave plans, designs, builds and operates IT solutions that span both corporate and operational systems and fulfill all infrastructure needs. With more than $374 million in revenues and 2,800 people, xwave is one of the largest IT services companies in Canada, with offices in St. John's, Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Texas, New England and Ireland.

More information can be found at www.xwave.com.