SHORT TAKES

BUZZEO INC. PARTNERS WITH CAPE CLEAR

Scottsdale, ARIZ. — Buzzeo Inc., a leading designer of Internet technology solutions, Friday announced its partnership with Cape Clear Software, a leading supplier of XML infrastructure technology, to simplify and accelerate the development process for enterprise application developers. “We are excited about the opportunity provided by this alliance to integrate our powerful ZEO CORBA Component Wizard with CapeConnect,” said Mike Huestis, Buzzeo chief technical officer. The integration combines ZEO CORBA Component Wizard’s design and client/server generation capability with the CapeConnect functionality for creation of SOAP-enabled HTML clients accessing CORBA back-end systems.

“This is an excellent use of CapeConnect to provide the first end-to-end CORBA development solution to allow developers to build complete, SOAP-enabled CORBA solutions directly from a graphical environment,” said John McGuire, chief operating officer at Cape Clear Software. The ease of use resulting from the combined ZCCW/CapeConnect code and HTML generation represents a significant enhancement over “traditional” command-line component development environments. In addition, the SOAP connectivity provided by the CapeConnect “SOAPDirect” toolkit will allow servers created using ZCCW to be accessed from XML-based applications. “CORBA and EJB will continue to be the dominant enterprise component architecture behind company firewalls,” said Huestis. “Additionally, SOAP’s XML-over-HTTP distributed protocol is emerging as the standard for business-to-business and business-to-consumer Web-enabled applications.” CapeConnect unites applications, Web pages and middleware components around a standards-based XML model. “The SOAP-to-CORBA code generation and integration capabilities of the ZEO CORBA Component Wizard and Cape Clear’s CapeConnect will greatly accelerate the time-to-market for applications that need to leverage these powerful technologies,” said Bob DeAnna, Buzzeo’s vice president of Product Architecture. “Therefore we also will be integrating CapeConnect into ZEO’s Enterprise Bean Wizard, which will be released as part of ZEOLogix early in 2001.” For additional information, please go to http://www.buzzeo.com or http://www.capeclear.com .

RAINBOW SIGNS OEM AGREEMENT WITH SUN

Irvine, CALIF. — Rainbow Technologies Inc., a leading provider of high-performance security solutions for the Internet and e-commerce, announced a new OEM agreement with Sun Microsystems to provide a SSL accelerator solution for Sun’s family of e-commerce and enterprise Web applications. Terms of the agreement are not disclosed. Rainbow’s SSL acceleration technology, utilized in Sun’s Crypto Accelerator I card, dramatically increases speed and capacity for handling millions of secure transactions on Sun servers that support the rapidly growing Internet economy.

The Crypto Accelerator I provides fast, secure online transactions for users of Sun’s high-availability, scalable and fault-tolerant servers optimized for current and future business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce applications. “Using the solution from Rainbow, our new SSL accelerator provides a performance boost for secure transaction processing and increases the number of clients an e-commerce server can support, even during peak loads,” said Raj Das, director of marketing, Integrated Products, Sun Microsystems. “This acceleration solution optimizes the investment our customers make in our Internet servers and speeds the authentication process for e-commerce success.” “We are pleased to extend the power and performance of Rainbow’s cryptographic acceleration technology as the security engine and e-commerce performance enhancement solution of choice for Sun Microsystems’ family of servers,” said Shawn Abbott, chief technology officer, Rainbow Technologies. Visit http://www.rainbow.com for more information.

VICOM ANNOUNCES ALLIANCE WITH STORAGENETWORKS

Fremont, CALIF. — Vicom Systems Inc., an industry leader in storage area network (SAN) and storage virtualization technology, announced that Vicom and StorageNetworks Inc., the storage services provider (SSP) for the e-economy, have entered into an engineering development alliance under which Vicom and StorageNetworks will develop storage virtualization technology for StorageNetworks’ Global Data Storage Network (GDSN). The joint engineering activities are intended to tailor Vicom products so that they specifically meet the rigorous requirements of StorageNetworks’ GDSN. Technologies co-developed by the two companies will be made exclusively available to StorageNetworks for a period of time. Vicom also announced that StorageNetworks has made an equity investment in the company for an undisclosed amount.

Samuel Tam, chief executive officer of Vicom Systems, said that Vicom Systems is seeking similar technology agreements with other companies engaged in storage area networking. “We are eager to form joint development partnerships and OEM agreements with leaders in all areas of storage networking, such as servers, switches, storage subsystems and file management systems,” Tam said. “We believe we have the ideal technology platform for providing storage on demand efficiently and easily.” “We chose to join with Vicom to co-develop the storage virtualization technologies, as they are demonstrated leaders in the areas of storage area networks and storage virtualization,” said Bill Miller, co-founder and chief technology officer of StorageNetworks. “Our joint efforts will support StorageNetworks’ continuing objective to develop proprietary storage network and software technology and infrastructure that enable StorageNetworks to efficiently and reliably deliver data storage as a service.” “We welcome this association with the world’s foremost storage service provider,” said Tam. “We are eager to work with their outstanding technology team to advance the leading edge of storage virtualization and SAN technology. We believe the result of our joint effort will greatly improve the ease of management and reliability of storage networking.” For more information about Vicom Systems and its products, visit http://www.vicom.com . For further information, visit http://www.StorageNetworks.com .

SIMULATIONS PLUS AND ACD TEAM UP

Lancaster, CALIF. — Simulations Plus Inc. and Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. (ACD), have announced a partnership to provide an integrated in silico (in the computer) solution for the screening, identification and characterization of promising new drug compounds by an integration of software from the two companies. Simulations Plus is a leading provider of ADME neural net and absorption simulation software used in the discovery and development of new drugs. Simulations Plus developed and licenses a suite of ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) simulation software, which includes among other software GastroPlus, the respected leader in the prediction of drug absorption in human and laboratory animals, and QMPRPlus(TM), which generates estimates of certain critical ADME properties from molecular structures. ACD is a leader in the field of physical property prediction. It offers accurate and insightful predictions of molecular physical properties, such as lipophilicity and solubility, both of which are important characteristics in the development and evaluation of new drugs.

Simulations Plus will link ACD’s pKa Batch prediction engine, a core component of ACD/PhysChem Batch, with Simulations Plus’ QMPRPlus, to include accurate estimates of ionization of molecules as part of the calculation of key ADME properties. The addition of accurate pKa prediction will enable joint customers to perform more accurate in silico screening of sets of ionizable compounds to identify and characterize promising new leads. “The valuable prediction of pKa provided by ACD through this partnership will enhance the new MDCK permeability model in QMPRPlus, which would otherwise require physical measurements of pKa on samples of the compounds,” said Michael Bolger, Ph.D., Director of Life Sciences of Simulations Plus. “Simulations Plus and ACD share the same vision: bring forward critical insight about a drug candidate’s potential for human absorption as early as possible in the Drug Discovery process,” said Robert DeWitte, Ph.D., Scientific Product Manager, Physical Chemistry at ACD. “This is the driving force behind all of the physical property predictions we make. As a result of this agreement, Medicinal Chemists can make decisions before synthesis, saving time and money and focusing effort on likely successes.”

VICOM ANNOUNCES ALLIANCE WITH STORAGENETWORKS

Fremont, CALIF. — Vicom Systems, Inc., an industry leader in storage area network (SAN) and storage virtualization technology, announced that Vicom and StorageNetworks, Inc., a storage services provider (SSP) for the e-Economy, have entered into an engineering development alliance under which Vicom and StorageNetworks will develop storage virtualization technology for StorageNetworks’ Global Data Storage Network (GDSN). The joint engineering activities are intended to tailor Vicom products so that they specifically meet the rigorous requirements of StorageNetworks’ GDSN. Technologies co-developed by the two companies will be made exclusively available to StorageNetworks for a period of time. Vicom also announced today that StorageNetworks has made an equity investment in the company for an undisclosed amount.

Samuel Tam, CEO of Vicom Systems, said that Vicom Systems is seeking similar technology agreements with other companies engaged in Storage Area Networking. “We are eager to form joint development partnerships and OEM agreements with leaders in all areas of storage networking, such as servers, switches, storage subsystems, and file management systems,” Tam said. “We believe we have the ideal technology platform for providing storage on demand efficiently and easily.” “We chose to join with Vicom to co-develop the storage virtualization technologies, as they are demonstrated leaders in the areas of storage area networks and storage virtualization,” said Bill Miller, co-founder and chief technology officer of StorageNetworks. “Our joint efforts will support StorageNetworks’ continuing objective to develop proprietary storage network and software technology and infrastructure that enable StorageNetworks to efficiently and reliably deliver data storage as a service.” “We welcome this association with the world’s foremost storage service provider,” said Samuel Tam, Vicom’s chief executive officer. “We are eager to work with their outstanding technology team to advance the leading edge of storage virtualization and SAN technology. We believe the result of our joint effort will greatly improve the ease of management and reliability of storage networking.” For more information about Vicom Systems and its products, please visit http://www.vicom.com .

STORAGE TEK INCREASES CONTRACT WITH AMDAHL

Sunnyvale, CALIF. — Amdahl Software announced that Storage Tek has increased its contract to resell its flagship storage migration and replication product, TDMF (Transparent Data Migration Facility) software. The new contract increases the total value of the Storage Tek contract with Amdahl Software to more than $3.5 million. Storage Tek, has been reselling Amdahl Software’s TDMF product since 1999 and will remarket TDMF software to its top 1000 global customers under the names TDMF/Full, TDMF/Exchange, TDMF/Virtual and TDMF/Volume Organizer.

TDMF software is one of the industry’s most efficient and powerful independent software facilities that enables independent data migration and replication, while ensuring continuous application availability. Some 40 percent of the world’s 1000 largest corporations currently use TDMF software with an unprecedented degree of satisfaction. Amdahl Software provides leading-edge software solutions to companies that demand e-business performance and application availability across the enterprise. Amdahl Software is the vendor of choice in the areas of data protection, migration, replication, performance, application availability, disaster recovery, SAN management and business continuance. Information on Storage Tek is available at http://www.storagetek.com .

CISCO TO BUY EXIO COMMUNICATIONS

San Jose, CALIF. — Cisco Systems Inc. said it would buy ExiO Communications for $155 million in stock, expanding the Internet equipment leader’s position in the wireless technology market. Cisco is expected to take a one-time charge of 1 cent per share as a result of the acquisition, which is expected to close in Cisco’s third fiscal quarter ending April 28.

ExiO, which has offices in San Jose, Calif., and Seoul, South Korea, makes wireless technologies for corporate networks for the code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless standard. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to closing conditions. The deal is the 22nd announced by Cisco this year. The San Jose-based company previously said it planned to make 20 to 25 acquisitions this year. Cisco shares closed at $51-1/8 on Wednesday, down 6 percent, or $3-1/4. The shares reached a 52-week low of $45 earlier this month and hit a 52-week high of $82 in March.

NVIDIA GRAPHICS EMPOWER SGI WORKSTATIONS

Santa Clara, CALIF. — NVIDIA Corporation announced that SGI now offers the NVIDIA QUADRO2 MXR AND QUADRO2 PRO graphics processors – as part of the SGI VPRO graphics family of solutions – on its silicon graphics 230, Silicon Graphics 330, and Silicon Graphics 550 visual workstations. The Quadro2 solutions, with full support for the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating environments, give visual computing professionals access to revolutionary graphics features including NVIDIA’s TwinView architecture for dual-display support, Digital Vibrance Control for fine-tuned workspace color adjustment, and the NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer that enables single-pass advanced per-pixel shading. Marketed and sold by SGI as the Silicon Graphics workstations with V7 (NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR) and VR7 (NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro) graphics solutions, the new graphics offerings are immediately available through SGI’s direct sales channels and from the company’s well-established distributors and resellers.

“By utilizing NVIDIA’s ground-breaking Quadro2 processors, SGI can dramatically lower the cost barrier that has typically been associated with professional graphics solutions in the past,” states Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. “By applying this strategy to the workstation market, NVIDIA has created a discontinuity, thus starting its climb to the top of the market.” The Silicon Graphics visual workstations incorporate a state-of-the-art Intel architecture with SGI visualization subsystems. The entry-level Silicon Graphics 230 comes with the NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR solution that gives customers 400M pixels per second rendering power, 25M triangles per second geometry processing power, and 2.93GB per second memory bandwidth. For its midrange system, the scalable Silicon Graphics 330 workstation, SGI gives customers a choice of the NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR or Quadro2 Pro graphics solution. With unprecedented 3D and 2D performance for the engineering professional, Quadro2 Pro solutions deliver an unmatched 1.0G pixels per second rendering power and 31M triangles per second geometry processing power making it the optimal choice for the most demanding design environments. The Pentium III Xeon processor-based Silicon Graphics 550 visual workstations include the NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro to accommodate power users in the CAD, digital content creation, and scientific visualization markets.

KANEMATSU WILL RESELL CNT’S STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Minneapolis, MINN. — CNT announced that Kanematsu Electronics Limited (KEL), a leading internet service provider, application service provider, and solution service provider in Japan, has signed a contract with CNT for $8 million over the next year to resell CNT’s storage networking solutions. KEL will include CNT’s networking technologies as part of its storage area network (SAN) offering. “SAN deployment in Japan is on the rise, and the ability to offer our customers proven, enterprise-strength solutions is critical to ensuring their confidence,” said Hiromi Fujikura, Director, Open Systems Sales Division at KEL. “CNT’S storage networking products are an important part of our san solutions because of their technical innovation and well-established reputation in the Japanese market.” CNT products are the networking components of choice for KEL’s SAN offerings, which cover both local- and wide-area networks. KEL is focused on providing a breadth of technology solutions that will address all aspects of the customer’s IT requirements. The company’s Intelligent Information Technology (IIT) framework of solutions is designed to be easily tailored to address the particular needs of all server environments.

“CNT’s vision for success includes partnering with leading service providers who can offer superior technology and outstanding service to their clients. KEL is a perfect example of that kind of successful partner,” said Nick Ganio, vice president of sales, marketing and services at CNT. “As in the U.S., the need to interconnect storage is increasing dramatically in Japan, and we look forward to working with KEL to deliver world-class solutions that drive superior business results for companies in the Japanese market.” CNT is the global specialist in storage networking solutions. CNT’s expertise is our ability to connect to different servers, systems, and platforms – across any distance – with high availability, scalability, and reliability. For more information, visit CNT’s web site at http://www.cnt.com .

TROIKA NETWORKS AND NETWORK APPLIANCE TEAM UP

Westlake Village, CALIF. — Troika Networks, Inc., a fast-growing private company driving the convergence of storage networking and clustering for improved availability and performance of e-business applications, and Network Appliance, Inc., a leading provider of network-attached data access and content delivery solutions, announced a formal relationship in which Network Appliance will integrate TROIKA’s Zentai Controller technology into its industry-leading Enterprise filers, bringing new ease-of-use to Storage Area Networks (SANs) by simplifying the management and enhancing the performance of serving data from Fibre Channel SANs to applications. TROIKA’s Zentai Controller solution, the only Fibre Channel controller today utilizing the VI (Virtual Interface) standard, will enable integration of Network Appliance storage appliances within Fibre Channel storage networking environments, powering high-performance server-to-server and filer-to-filer data exchange.

Network Appliance filers are commonly deployed in data centers, providing continuous data availability for mission-critical applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) and collaborative applications like e-mail. In addition to 24×7 data availability, some customers also require Fibre Channel-based clustering and server connectivity to support their data center strategy. With this agreement, Network Appliance plans to integrate TROIKA Zentai controllers into future filer products. Network Appliance customers will benefit from TROIKA’s implementation of the VI Architecture integrated in its Zentai Controller, through substantially improved performance of file-sharing applications and enhanced clustering capabilities within Fibre Channel-based storage networking environments. VI was developed to provide a single standard interface for clustering and application networking, improving CPU utilization and drastically reducing response time at the application level. VI over Fibre Channel (FC-VI), combines the prominent technology for implementing SANs, with an industry-standard method for interconnecting computers in clusters, enabling the development of a reliable, scalable, high-availability infrastructure necessary to support e-applications.

============================================================