INDUSTRY

Sachsen Among First Banks to Realize Unparalleled Transaction Time When Running Financial Risk Simulations on Sun Grid -- Sun Microsystems, today announced that CDO2, a provider of innovative pricing and risk technology for organizations trading structured credit products, is using the Sun Grid Compute Utility to power robust risk simulation services. CDO2, in conjunction with Markit Group Limited, is using Sun Grid to serve customers in the financial services industry, including the bank Sachsen LB Europe plc. Sun Grid helps customers and partners derive immediate benefits from an open, grid-based computing infrastructure on a pay-per-use utility basis that enables Sun's partners and customers to deploy technical applications, accelerate innovation and speed time to results without having to invest in expensive infrastructure. Sachsen LB Europe plc, a subsidiary of an East German Landesbank, uses CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid to manage its customers' portfolios of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) totaling more than 1 billion Euro. Sachsen first went live on Sun Grid in December 2005 with just 10 central processing units (CPUs) per hour. As Sachsen is now able to run more complex risk simulations through Sun Grid's reservation-based system for compute power continues to grow, the company is able to enjoy a quick turnaround running calculations at 100 CPUs per hour with all systems management powered by Sun and CDO2. Sachsen now gets independent pricing models and performs risk analytics using CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid -- delivering a significant business benefit to the bank. "Prior to choosing CDO2 on Sun Grid, we were forced to run spreadsheets for hours to get critical financial figures, with no capability to run risk simulations," said Christopher Nolan, Head of Structured Credit Products at Sachsen LB Europe plc. "Now we can generate the same figures more accurately in minutes and perform a detailed risk analysis of our CDO portfolios. CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid has given us a significant competitive advantage -- making available a new class of complex financial simulations so we can make critical business decisions more quickly." CDO2 and Markit Light Up the Sun Grid CDO2 commenced work in May 2005 on the first Sun Grid utility service. The initial Sun Grid capability was available only under contract with Sun. Today, Sun announced Internet access of a pilot release of Sun Grid to United States users at www.network.com. Portal access is expected to be available in the United Kingdom within six months. "The massive, on-demand compute power available through Sun Grid has enabled us to deliver to our customers significant time-to-market and cost savings previously unavailable without purchasing an entire IT infrastructure," said Gary Kendall, director, CDO2. "By combining our innovative pricing and risk technology with Sun Grid, customers are on a level playing field with larger banks by being able to access the highest quality of CDO pricing and risk infrastructure on a utility basis." "Markit's benchmark pricing is widely used for the price verification of complex structured products which require advanced systems to support client's pricing and risk management processes," said Mark Hunt, director of product development at Markit Group. "Markit's data, integrated with CDO2 and Sun's innovative compute grid, addresses the needs in this complex area and we are delighted to be working with them." "Sachsen and other financial institutions are realizing a competitive advantage from faster and more efficient access to financial simulations and information, thanks to CDO2 and Markit technologies on Sun Grid," said James Powell, vice president financial services, Sun Microsystems. "Sun Grid offers customers a new way to purchase and access secure and scalable compute resources at an affordable price. The financial industry, along with the oil and gas, scientific and education communities, are helping lead the way for other industries to realize the benefits of Sun Grid in a high performance computing environment," said Aisling MacRunnels, senior director, utility computing, Sun Microsystems.