MOVIES

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Today at LinuxWorld (January 22-24, Booth 221, Hall 3D, Javits Center, New York City), SGI puts into motion a campaign to ignite business opportunities for its Solution Providers and build momentum for the company's launch of the SGI(R) Altix(TM) 3000 system. At the recent SGI Solution Provider Sales Conference, attendees were given an in-depth pre-briefing on the new SGI Altix 3000 system. This annual conference kicked off major campaign efforts including a comprehensive technical and sales training program plus a demand-generation program for driving success with the new Linux(R) OS-based system from SGI. As part of the demand-generation program at LinuxWorld, RCH Products, Inc., Software Marketing Consultants, Inc., Clarix, SCICOR and James River Technical, Inc., are among the SGI Solution Providers supporting the SGI booth and inviting potential customers for an up-close demonstration of the new system. "We are excited and energized by the opportunities to work with SGI in selling its expanded family of HPC products," said Tom Mountcastle, executive vice president of James River Technical, Inc. "We believe SGI's new line of Linux products will continue to differentiate the company in the industry and provide a comprehensive suite of products for JRT's customers in the research and higher-education communities." In addition to LinuxWorld activities, SGI is helping Solution Providers generate new business opportunities by hosting a series of Webinars focused on Linux in HPC and storage solutions for multiplatform HPC environments, targeted for customers and potential customers. "SGI Solution Providers are an integral part of the SGI team and play a strategic role in building momentum for SGI products and services in the markets we serve," said Greg Estes, vice president of SGI Corporate Marketing and Advisory Council executive sponsor. "SGI has taken a once utopian dream and made it a reality: Linux in the mainstream. The SGI Altix 3000 family brings Linux into application areas previously only served by proprietary UNIX solutions and successfully designed true supercomputing capabilities around the Intel Itanium 2 processor- something that no other vendor has been able to do. Not only did SGI make the dream a reality, they expanded on the dream. SGI has designed the only Linux OS-based product that scales to and above 64 processors, utilizing shared memory in a single system image. Customers who have toiled with other vendors' products can now be spoiled with the SGI Altix solution. A true end-to-end, fully supported Linux server and supercluster is what the world asked for and SGI has delivered. The SGI Altix family takes real-world applications to out- of-this-world performance levels," stated Nick Rosica, sales manager with RCH Products, Inc. "SGI is leading the charge in high-productivity computing with the new SGI Altix 3000 family of servers and superclusters, providing unprecedented innovation in scalability, performance and storage. By utilizing 64-bit Linux clustering and contributing to the open-source community, SGI is providing SMC with more computing options to support our customers in the manufacturing market. We think our customers will appreciate this powerful open-source computing environment and will want to investigate how the new SGI Altix 3000 family of products will benefit their business objectives," commented Ben Marino, president and CEO, Software Marketing Consultants, Inc. SGI Global Solution Provider Conference -- Platform for Success Channel teamwork, technology direction, services growth and business outlook were among the widespread topics discussed by more than 100 SGI Solution Providers with SGI representatives during the annual Solution Provider Sales Conference. With this year's corporate theme "Igniting Innovation and Leadership," the recent conference served as an interactive event for partners and SGI personnel, including in-depth SGI product, solution and industry training, as well as world-class Miller Heiman sales training. SGI hosted the annual event at the SGI headquarters in Mountain View, opening its doors to Solution Providers from global Channel organizations representing several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Kuwait, Australia and Korea. "The SGI Solution Provider Conference was a valuable, informative and enlightening event. Partners spent quality time with the SGI product management teams to receive information on new products such as the new SGI Altix 3000 system and company executives delivered a compelling message on company direction and focus. We met with the Channel management team to exchange ideas and insight into processes, markets and future business initiatives," said Cindra Stolk, president, Federal Edge, Inc. "At the conclusion of the conference, Federal Edge had a stronger sense of SGI's strategy for the future and forged a strengthened relationship for success in 2003. We are very excited to be among the partners SGI has chosen to team with." "The SGI Solution Provider Conference was an energetic and invaluable venue to obtain comprehensive knowledge on SGI products and positioning that enable us to provide the best solution for our customers' needs," said Andy Pratt, president, Unique Digital. "SGI's new products offer such an outstanding value proposition for our customers that I'm confident 2003 will be a successful year for our customers, UDI and SGI." Advisory Council Keeps Eye on the Future Focused on the future and complementing the conference agenda was the SGI Solution Provider Advisory Council meeting. The Advisory Council is an active forum through which SGI and Channel representatives discuss and shape Channel programs. "Fostering business relationships that help drive emerging technologies like the SGI Altix 3000 system, while recognizing new market opportunities are of paramount importance for SGI's Channel partner program," added Estes. During the Advisory Council meeting, dialogue centered on key topics including synchronizing the Channel sales model with SGI corporate initiatives, fostering tighter integration with SGI Global Alliance partners, growing services opportunities and winning new business within target markets for SGI's new Linux OS-based system. SGI Solution Providers are authorized to resell the entire SGI(R) product portfolio including hardware, software, technology solutions and more. The term SGI Solution Provider is an umbrella term for Channel partner, reseller, VAR, or Master Reseller. SGI also supports Solution Providers with an attractive financing program for their customers through SGI Solutions Finance. Created to complement industry-leading SGI systems, software and services, SGI Solutions Finance is dedicated to providing creative financial solutions, exemplary service and competitive pricing to customers. For more information about the SGI Channel program or how to become an authorized SGI Solution Provider visit the SGI Solution Provider Program Web site at www.sgi.com/resellers.