SolidSpeed Networks Selects Volera's Excelerator Platform to Power Its Innovative Content Delivery Network; Excelerator Delivered Via IBM eServer xSeries Servers

Business Wire, Feb 21, 2001

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2001

Volera Inc., the leading provider of content networking solutions and a subsidiary of Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL), today announced that SolidSpeed Networks Inc. has selected Volera Excelerator(TM) as the Web site acceleration platform for its Content Delivery Network.

Volera Excelerator supports ultra high-speed streaming media capabilities, secure socket layer (SSL) processing and enhanced content management features. Excelerator, delivered via IBM eServer xSeries servers, will be integrated with SolidSpeed's revolutionary network to deliver content delivery services to Web hosting providers, enabling them to dramatically improve the speed and reliability of their customers' Web sites.

"Volera Excelerator allows us to continue evolving our network into the most optimized and affordable Content Delivery Network," said Jon Zeeff, chief technology officer of SolidSpeed Networks Inc. "Excelerator's superior price/performance ratio enables us to deliver a service that improves profitability for our Web hosting customers."

SolidSpeed Networks provides its Content Delivery Network (CDN) service as a turnkey package of managed services for Web hosters to add to their existing product and service offerings. SolidSpeed offers an affordable way to accelerate Web site content using intelligent routing and network optimization, allowing pages to bypass Web congestion and outages, increasing customer retention rates and site effectiveness. By integrating Volera Excelerator together with IBM's leading hardware solutions, SolidSpeed has the capability to provide a highly scalable and affordable caching platform.

"SolidSpeed and Volera share a common vision of providing optimized and cost efficient services for improving Internet performance and profitability," said Simon Khalaf, president of Volera. "We are excited to be working with SolidSpeed on this shared vision and are confident that the Excelerator platform provides a clear competitive edge today and will continue to provide our customers, like SolidSpeed, with innovative new content management services over our Excelerator platform."

Volera Excelerator

Volera Excelerator is the industry's fastest caching solution and is the core product in Volera's Content Management platform that allows enterprises and service providers to develop next generation networks capable of scaling with the growth of the Internet and corporate intranets. The Excelerator content management platform gives network operators the ability to control the distribution and delivery of content across a distributed and geographically dispersed network of Excelerator-powered caches. Excelerator supports ultra high-speed streaming media capabilities, SSL processing and enhanced content management features. Excelerator also provides basic content management services such as content purging, pushing and pinning. Additional services that will be integrated into the platform are planned for release in the second quarter of 2001.

Volera's Excelerator is distributed by Volera and its expanded global distribution network that includes 11 leading OEMs, including IBM.

"Net-savvy users want a fast Internet experience that many companies are still not capable of providing. Our IBM eServer xSeries servers with Volera's Excelerator address this problem with the speed and intelligence necessary in optimizing the delivery of Web content," said IBM's Nancy Williams, director, PartnerWorld for Developers, IBM eServer xSeries servers.

About Volera

Volera Inc. provides an intelligent new platform for managing the delivery of content to transform today's Web into a fast, flexible and scalable business tool. Content publishers, service providers, hosting companies and enterprises now have the products and services to accelerate data flow and inject unprecedented control over the delivery of critical content, media and applications. Volera Inc. is a subsidiary of Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL) with a strategic investment from Nortel Networks Inc. and a minority equity stake from Accenture. More information on Volera can be found at http://www.volera.com.

About SolidSpeed Networks

SolidSpeed Networks, a distributed information infrastructure company, offers content delivery and other managed services to Web hosting providers, enabling them to dramatically improve the speed and reliability of their customers' Web sites. Customers typically experience 5x reliability and up to 10x speed improvement as well as the ability to handle spikes in demand. SolidSpeed Networks' new patent-pending distributed computing data engine called Probester employs thousands of PCs, providing the most accurate measurement of Web site speed and reliability possible. A member of Cisco's Content Alliance, SolidSpeed resellers include IBM Global Services and Superb Internet along with technology partners such as Inktomi, Novell, UUNet, Cable & Wireless and AboveNet. For more information call 800/461-6790 or e-mail: info@SolidSpeed.com.