TAHO Commerce Group Earns IBM e-Business Distinction; ASP Deploys Full-Service e-Brokerage Platform In World-Class IBM e-Business Hosting Center Services Datacenters

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2000

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2000

TAHO Commerce Group, an application service provider (ASP) that specializes in e-finance infrastructure technologies, today announced that it has achieved IBM e-Business status, based on the combined use of IBM hardware, software, and services in deploying TAHO's new Online Retail Brokerage Infrastructure Technology (ORBIT).

Hosted in IBM's e-Business Hosting Center in Southbury, Connecticut, the ORBIT platform is engineered to meet the needs of brokerages, banks, and other firms seeking to offer reliable, private-branded online brokerage services. ORBIT enables firms that value speed-to-market to deploy high-quality web and wireless brokerage solutions in only a matter of weeks.

TAHO e-brokerage technology services are hosted in IBM's fully managed e-business hosting environment. The primary competitive advantages that TAHO gains through its relationship with IBM are dependability, security, and performance. IBM e-Business Hosting Centers deliver high-reliability using proactive network and system monitoring, capacity management, and network redundancy.

Security is ensured through 24x7 intrusion detection provided by dedicated IBM security professionals and Internet emergency response services. High performance is delivered through IBM service-level objectives that rely on cluster multi-processing technologies and high-bandwidth OC3 network connectivity.

"Through this strategic alliance, we combine the extensibility of the ORBIT platform with robust IBM Global Services' datacenter operations to offer industrial-strength e-brokerage solutions," said Neal Ruskin, TAHO Managing Partner for Technical Development. "Our customers can rely on TAHO and IBM for non-stop operation of their mission-critical online systems."

TAHO and IBM have initially deployed the ORBIT application on 11 servers including Sun E450 and E250 enterprise-class servers running high-availability cluster multiprocessing (SunCluster) control software. When combined with the well-engineered application layer, this configuration ensures high-availability application performance.

The goal is near-continuous availability, where the limits of processing horsepower and communications bandwidth are never approached.

The flexibility, scalability and portability of the ORBIT application permit the centralized datacenter configuration to be rapidly and precisely tuned, in accordance with usage levels and advancing technology, resulting in significant administrative and cost efficiencies.

"IBM is pleased to work with TAHO Commerce Group to deliver the most advanced and versatile e-business solutions to the financial services community," said Robert Maldia, client solutions executive for IBM. "These solutions help TAHO's customers effectively transition to the next generation of financial services."

About TAHO Commerce Group, LLC

TAHO Commerce Group [http://www.tahocommerce.com] is an application service provider (ASP) specializing in high-security, high-availability systems infrastructure for online investment services.

TAHO was founded by experienced IT professionals in partnership with Silver Management Group, Inc., an IBM Business Partner with expertise in the application of business continuity principles. TAHO combines deep domain expertise, proven IT practices, and leading edge Internet technologies to deliver industrial-strength e-brokerage solutions.

ORBIT is a trademark of TAHO Commerce Group, LLC.

All other company names & products are trademarks, or registered trademarks, of their respective companies.