SINGAPORE, Oct. 29 -- Singapore Computer Systems (SCS), a subsidiary of the NCS Group, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) today elevated their grid computing partnership to a new level with the launch of Alatum, a ground-breaking commercial grid computing platform.

Alatum -- positioned as Singapore's largest commercial grid computing service platform -- will deliver a plethora of computing power, storage and software applications on a pay-per-use, on-demand and online basis. Available from 1 Nov, the services are targeted at public sector agencies as well as commercial organisations looking for cost-effective, integrated and easily-managed IT solutions.

The launch of Alatum follows the Singapore Government's award of the country's Grid Service Provisioning project to the SCS and HP consortium in June 2008. The award marked the start of grid services commercialisation and an industry-government partnership to promote wider grid adoption among organisations.

SCS President and Chief Executive Officer Tan Tong Hai and HP Singapore Vice President and Managing Director Tan Yen Yen sealed the partnership with 20 pioneer partners at a milestone launch today, witnessed by RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

The heavy-duty list of pioneer partners include recognised software applications brands Haley, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Actuate, Aksaas, AlpSoft, Avartis, BLC Solutions, Clik Technologies, iZeno, Melioris, Philip Tang & Sons, and Netsuite, and strategic technology partners Citrix Systems, IBM WebSphere Commerce and its partner Cnetric, Platform Computing, Red Hat and SingTel.

This strong pool of partners ensures that Alatum has a comprehensive, end-to-end suite of grid computing services that are affordably-priced for customers. See appended fact sheet (PDF) for details of Alatum services.

Mr Tan Tong Hai said: "SCS is pleased to launch Alatum as the grid computing platform with the widest offerings of software, computing power, storage and bandwidth on demand services, and backed by proven global grid players. We are also encouraged by the strong signups from local independent software vendors as well as enterprise customers so far. We hope more will take advantage of Alatum's offerings, and as the platform means in Latin, to provide wings to help companies take flight in their business."

Ms Tan Yen Yen added: "HP sees the next wave of technology being driven by a new model of computing called cloud computing. Businesses will increasingly access a wide range 'cloud services' available on-demand on the Internet. Alatum services are an apt introduction to the promise of cloud services, and HP is excited to be part of this new paradigm of services provisioning."

RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay said: "Singapore is one of the first in the world to embark on a national effort to draw together commercial grid service providers to offer pay-per-use access to compute, storage and software facilities. Today, more companies are aware of the computational and economic benefits of Grid computing. The collaboration between SCS & HP is a testament to this increasing adoption and we hope that such collaborations would spur more innovative grid services at competitive rates."

Alatum Secures First Enterprise Customers

SCS and HP also announced today that its Alatum partners have signed up Research International, K2 Specialist Services and Vestas Technology R&D Singapore as the first enterprise customers on the Alatum platform.

"As a leading global marketing and innovation research agency, our team of consultants travel extensively in the region, carrying with them confidential customer data that needs to be continuously backed up and self-recovered when necessary. AlpSoft's Atempo LiveBackup service on the Alatum platform ensures business continuity for our business." -- Mr S P Teoh, Regional IT Manager, Research International. Research International one of the world's largest custom market research agency.

"K2's business is both service oriented and project based. Project budgeting, forecasting and cash flow management is critical to our ongoing business success. With Avartis Planning OnDemand edition on the SCS-HP commercial grid infrastructure, we can use these advance financial planning features with minimal implementation time, low capital investment and scale up according to our needs." -- Mr Nick Conway, Managing Director, K2. K2 provides inspection, maintenance and repair services to the oil and gas industry.

"Vestas is a company that has an international presence all around the world and their main business is in harnessing wind power for energy. The R & D department within Vestas in Singapore is using Alatum grid to perform High Performance Computing for their R & D purpose. Vestas Technology R&D Singapore is using Alatum grid's architecture, human resource, OS as well as the necessary support and also capitalizes on Alatum grid's ability to spike up on demand if they need more cores for computing." -- Mr Lim Chee Kang, Lead Engineer, Vestas Technology R&D Singapore Pte Ltd. Vestas is the world leader in wind technology.

Alatum Key Partners Speak

Citrix Systems

"Citrix plays a major role in making the cloud computing era a practical reality for business enterprises, public sector agencies and consumers. More than 215,000 companies around the world rely on Citrix every day to deliver applications and desktops as a cloud-like service to their users. Working with the partners in Alatum, we are pleased to extend these same capabilities to enable them to host and deliver successful cloud services to the end users with the same performance, security and reliability." -- Yaj Malik, Area Vice President of ASEAN, Citrix Systems

Haley

"Haley is pleased to be part of the Alatum's consortium, bringing value-added services to both its end customers and partners. Creating business rules in natural language brings agility. On-demand service business is not only about cost, it is also about time to market and flexibility to adjust to changes -- programs evolve, laws get rewritten, standards are revised and reporting requirements expand." -- Joanne Tee, Vice President of Asia, Haley. Haley is a natural language business rule vendor.

IBM WebSphere Commerce

"IBM is pleased to collaborate with SCS in driving the Next Generation eCommerce solution on Cloud Computing. This marks an important milestone in our partnership in delivering innovative but practical solutions to help enterprises achieve greater business and financial benefits in an eCommerce environment." -- Yvonne Loh, eCommerce Solutions Executive, IBM WebSphere Commerce Asia Pacific

Platform Computing

"As the transition from grid to cloud computing begins to take place, organizations in both the public and private sector will need to adapt to the changing IT landscape. Alatum will give commercial enterprises and public sector agencies access to a reliable, state-of-the-art on-demand cloud solution that addresses their business needs and save them the expense and hassle of maintaining their own IT architecture. Platform Computing will continue to work with SCS and its partners to deliver the most efficient and cost effective cloud infrastructure." -- Tripp Purvis, Vice President, Business Development, Platform Computing.

Red Hat

"Red Hat is focused on redefining the way software is developed and consumed in the market. The inclusion of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform and applications in Alatum is a good testimony that the market is ready for Open Source. Open Source will take cost out of the business infrastructure and this partnership will provide them a seamless access to the open technology." -- Teong Eng Guan, General Manager, Red Hat ASEAN.

Salesforce.com

"As both a pioneer and market leader in Software as a Service (SaaS) and now with Force.com, Platform as a Service (PaaS); Salesforce.com is pleased to support the Alatum initiaitve designed to bring the power of cloud computing to all Singapore companies, large and small." -- Steve McWhirter, President, Asia Pacific, Salesforce.com.

About Alatum

Alatum (Latin for 'winged') is a collaboration between SCS and HP to provide commercial grid computing services to business enterprises and public sector agencies. Following the project award by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore in June 2008, the SCS-HP consortium will deliver software, computing power and storage as a pay-per-use, on-demand, on-line service to customers. Founded on a strong partnership between SCS and HP, Alatum is the platform where enterprises and consumers benefit from affordable, secure, on-demand access to high performance software, computing and storage services.

About SCS

Established in 1980, Singapore Computer Systems (SCS) provides trusted ICT services to enterprise clients across multiple sectors, including Government, Defence, Education, Healthcare, Logistics and Financial Services. It offers an extensive range of services including IT infrastructure, applications management services, business solutions, managed services, converged communications and business continuity management services. SCS has operations in Singapore, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. For more information, visit http://www.scs.com.sg.

About HP

HP, the world's largest technology company, provides printing and personal computing products and IT services, software and solutions that simplify the technology experience for consumers and businesses. HP completed its acquisition of EDS on Aug. 26, 2008. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

About NCS Group

NCS Group is a leading information technology (IT) and communications engineering services provider with more than 5,000 staff located in more than 10 countries across the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. NCS has in-depth domain knowledge and unique delivery capabilities which focus on defining, realising and sustaining Business Value for its Customers via the innovative use of technology. With proven expertise in consulting, development, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure management and solutions, gained while serving government and commercial organisations across the region, NCS delivers end-to-end support for every organisation's technology needs. Headquartered in Singapore, NCS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group.

-----

Source: Singapore Computer Systems