APPLICATIONS

Platform Computing Inc. (www.platform.com), the largest distributed and grid computing software vendor, completed on Friday, June 10th, its first Financial Services Customer Advisory Council. At the Council, hosted at JP Morgan Chase, senior management from eight major investment banking and insurance firms came together to explore the future of grid technology in the financial services industry and to discuss their achievements, best practices and requirements going forward. The Council was held in Manhattan and ran from June 9th through June 10th. Platform Computing Inc., the largest distributed and grid computing software vendor, continued to capitalize on its momentum in the Financial Services (FS) industry with the announcement today of the next generation of Platform Symphony: version 2.2, featuring key updates that enable FS organizations to transform IT resources into efficient Enterprise Grids. Platform also announced record annual growth in the FS sector for FY 2005 fueled by new customer wins, including BNP Paribas and UFJ Japan, as well as the expansion of existing customer accounts such as JPMorgan Chase. Key to this growth was the formation of strategic partnerships with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) Catalyst, Summit Systems and Murex. "Our recently completed fiscal year was led by continued momentum and growth in our Financial Services business," said Robert Shecterle, VP of marketing for Platform Computing. "As a company, we have a rich tradition of technology leadership and innovation across multiple industries, such as electronics and industrial manufacturing, providing the most advanced enterprise grid computing solutions needed to maximize IT investments for real competitive advantage. With the introduction of this new version of Platform Symphony 2.2, we are continuing to establish ourselves as the leading enterprise grid vendor in Financial Services, expanding our offering to establish a standards-based common architecture. Our FS customers will now be able to solidify their competitive advantage in the market by more effectively accelerating and managing workloads, gaining visibility into cluster operations and ultimately reducing their IT costs while increasing profitability." Enterprise Grid is a heterogeneous, "always on," virtual computing pool where resources are dynamically matched to evolving business needs. Enterprise Grid makes use of infrastructure software that sits between mission-critical applications and computing resources. This grid layer, known as the Virtual Execution Machine (VEM(TM)), manages the workloads from the applications and dynamically allocates tasks to available resources according to business priorities. VEM provides an infrastructure engineered to run the widest range of application types, sharing workloads across one large-scale virtual infrastructure comprised of the many hundreds, or thousands, of CPUs within the organization. Platform Symphony 2.2 Platform Symphony version 2.2 is the latest version of the Platform Symphony enterprise grid software solution that virtualizes and distributes application services across existing heterogeneous IT resources creating a shared, scalable and reliable infrastructure. Platform Symphony 2.2 delivers enhanced performance, new functionality, and simplified management to grid- enabled application workloads atop the rock-solid VEM (Virtual Execution Machine) providing a high-performing, stable and compatible grid computing environment. Its built-in capabilities align IT optimization with business objectives, enabling organizations to effectively eliminate traditional infrastructure bottlenecks, resulting in improved QoS (Quality of Service), increased revenue and decreased costs. Platform Symphony 2.2 ensures policy- driven, prioritized service levels for always-on, 24x7 access to resources. New updates in version 2.2 include: -- Ownership with Sharing: The industry's first grid software to guarantee local control and ownership of resources while maximizing sharing and resource usage across applications, business units and sites, facilitating both testing and production environments. -- Enhanced Performance and Scalability: As it relates to linear application performance, as task throughput increases, near 100% utilization is maintained regardless of how large the grid grows. -- New Intuitive Management GUI: simplifies application grid enablement and management. Platform Symphony was recently honored with the prestigious Banker Award for ROI of the Year in 2005, and also received the ClusterWorld Excellence in Cluster Technology Award in 2004. Customer and Partner Growth Platform achieved unprecedented growth in Financial Services in FY05 through new customer acquisition, expansion at existing customer accounts and the addition of several key partners. In addition to new customer wins such as BNP Paribas, HSBC, HBK Investments LP and UFJ Japan, existing Platform customers - including JPMorgan Chase, Societe Generale, Sal Oppenheim and others - expanded the scope of their grid deployments. Platform Enterprise Grid solutions are currently deployed in 5 of the world's top 20 investment banks. Additionally, Platform forged key strategic partnerships and completed technical integrations with leading application partners such as Murex, Summit Systems, Calypso, Catalyst, Tillinghast, GGY, Imagine and Codefarm enabling it to offer the benefits of its Enterprise Grid solution to an even greater audience of Financial Services companies.