Certeon Announces the Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

Business Wire, April 22, 2004

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2004

New Product Enables Scaling of Microsoft's SharePoint Products and Technologies Throughout Large Distributed Enterprises and Across Enterprise Boundaries

Certeon, Inc., a leading provider of secure information distribution, management, sharing and synchronization platforms for diverse enterprise and partner networks, today announced a major new product, the Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. The new product addresses key scalability issues with large Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 deployments:

-- Performance related to application latency and network

bandwidth

-- Information availability during network disruptions

-- User account management

-- External partner and supplier document integration

The SharePoint Products and Technologies architecture provides a rich and powerful environment for collaborative development and deployment of all types of documents. Organizations can quickly and at low-cost manage a large number of rapidly changing and time- sensitive documents. However, as the number of users increase, especially in remote offices, issues of performance and manageability become critical. A centralized model that may work well for smaller localized teams and pilot programs will experience serious performance and manageability issues in larger scale distributed deployments.

The Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform (DCP) for SharePoint Products and Technologies improves performance by providing a combination of reactive and proactive caching. Certeon positions the files needed by local users at the edge of the network if they are not already there. For example, a local user can change an existing document and publish it using SharePoint Products and Technologies, and the Certeon Platform will route and synchronize the document throughout the network. Users access documents transparently, without having to know their physical location. Certeon redirects the user access requests to the appropriate location and delivers the files locally from caches, which offloads the data center and minimizes latency.

"With the Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform for SharePoint Products and Technologies, Microsoft and Certeon can address the needs of global enterprises and their partner networks," said Zoltan Deak, product manager, Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. "Hundreds of thousands of users across thousands of locations and different domains can now share a collaborative network based on SharePoint Products and Technologies. What's more, by distributing SharePoint documents to the edge of the network in a fashion transparent to the user, the Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform accelerates the performance of the network while preserving its ease of use and keeping document versions synchronized across locations and domains."

The products that make up the Certeon Distributed Collaboration Platform (DCP) for SharePoint Products and Technologies are the DCP Manager, DCP Agent, and the DCP Connector.

DCP Manager for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

The DCP Manager for SharePoint Products and Technologies, located at the center of the network, manages aggregation, distribution, and synchronization. It also manages the overall infrastructure by providing network management, security controls, policy administration, and usage and resource reporting. Collaboration Manager for SharePoint Products and Technologies is available in standard as well as in highly available and scalable configurations.

Remote Accelerator for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

The Remote Accelerator, located at a site remote from the central Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 server, re-hosts and delivers documents to local SharePoint users. The Remote Accelerator is available in standard, high performance and enhanced security configurations.

Collaboration Connector for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies

The Collaboration Connector allows documents to be shared and synchronized between two separate and autonomous Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 servers. The Collaboration Connector provides file transfer and synchronization between the central Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 servers. It works independently of, or in conjunction with, the Collaboration Manager and the Remote Accelerator installed for each SharePoint System, but does not require them to be installed.

About Certeon

Certeon is a leading provider of software and networked appliances. The Certeon Distribution Platform enables corporations and government agencies to securely share large amounts of information across dispersed organizations, over diverse networks, through limited network bandwidth, with persistent or intermittent connections. Using the platform, customers can distribute bandwidth-intensive applications and rich data such as streaming media, web-based applications, directories, web sites, web objects, and files. The platform collects, synchronizes, and distributes information and applications from behind firewalls without costly network upgrades.