TORONTO, CANADA -- Platform Computing Inc., a leader in distributed computing software, has named Michael Sharma as vice president, Business Development. In this position, Sharma will lead Platform's global business development strategy, including the creation of new strategic alliances with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators. With over 20 years experience in the technology industry, Sharma was most recently president of Netscape Communications Canada. "Building strong, collaborative partner relationships is a critical part of our future success and continued profitability," said Sharma. "One of the reasons that we have been successful to date is that our solutions - including our Linux offerings and our new Grid Suite -- are unique in that they can run on any platform and integrate with any software offering. Since distributed computing is inherently heterogeneous, this cross-platform functionality offers a compelling message to our OEM and ISV partners, which need creative, proven, end-to-end solutions for their customers." As Vice President, Business Development, Sharma will develop and leverage strategic partnerships with system, network and independent software vendors and system integrators in each of Platform's main market segments, including computer manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, financial services, government and life sciences. Sharma will also continue to strengthen Platform's network of global resellers, which complements its global sales force to offer Platform solutions in Canada, China, Europe, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S. and Taiwan. "Michael has over 20 years of technology industry experience and has focused primarily on new business development for the past ten years," said Phil Weaver, president, Platform Computing. "We are thrilled to have Michael join our management team to help us accelerate worldwide growth with our partners." Sharma will seek opportunities to increase collaboration with Platform's strategic partners, including system vendors Compaq, Cray, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Sun and SGI, and ISV partners including ANSYS, Avanti, Cadence, Fluent, LION Bioscience and Synopsys, among others. Recently, Platform announced that Platform Load Sharing Facility (LSF) will be available on the IBM eServer pSeries 690 and on the IBM eServer Cluster 1300e Linux clustering servers. Platform will also deliver Platform LSF on HP j6000 compute farms. In August, Platform partnered with SAS to create the industry's first distributed data warehousing solution by integrating Platform LSF JobScheduler with SAS/Warehouse Administrator software. "As distributed computing, Grid computing and Linux become more pervasive, we will also expand our partnerships in the business computing market, which represents a high growth area for Platform," Sharma continued. "Not only will we expand the scope of our relationship with SAS, we will also develop new opportunities for Platform LSF and Platform SiteAssure, specifically in the areas of operational systems and business intelligence." Platform delivers a broad range of distributed computing solutions, including workload management with Platform LSF, resource management with Platform SiteAssure and performance management with Platform Analyzer. Platform recently announced that it plans to develop Platform Grid Suite, the industry's most powerful and comprehensive commercial Grid computing solution, which integrates Platform's distributed computing software with open source components from the Globus Toolkit(TM) and data management components from AVAKI. Compaq is the first to announce plans to make Platform Grid Suite available on its high performance servers to provide a 'Grid-enabled' solution. From 1995 to 1998, Sharma managed sales into the growing financial services and manufacturing market segments at Oracle Corporation (Canada), focusing on opportunity management and enterprise sales. Prior to this, he held a variety of senior positions at Amdahl Canada from 1985 to 1995, where he developed North American competitive sales strategies and also directed Amdahl's Education and Professional Services division. For more information visit www.platform.com