Continuent's Open Source Middleware Aligns With Gartner's 2006 Top 10 Strategic Technologies; Leading Analyst Firm Names Two Key Continuent Core Product Focuses - Grid Computing and Virtualization - As Areas to Watch in 2006

Business Wire, Dec 20, 2005

EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- Continuent, the leading provider of commercial open source middleware solutions for database high availability, praised industry analyst firm Gartner's predictions that grid computing and virtualization will be two major areas to watch for growth in 2006. Continuent is a leader in both categories; the company's database virtualization technology redefines high availability and scalability for enterprises of all sizes. Continuent's breakthrough grid offering works with all major databases, delivering high availability in any enterprise environment, whether homogenous or heterogeneous, ensuring peace of mind that mission critical data is accessible at all times.

"Gartner's predictions reflect the evolving trend we have observed and shaped our business around," said Continuent CEO, Eero Teerikorpi. "As enterprises increasingly demand high availability to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction, it is critical to have reliable solutions like the ones Continuent provides. These key drivers have helped to shape our product vision for 2006."

Virtualization is central to Continuent's product offerings. The company delivers high availability and scalability through an open-source based database virtualization technology. Continuent abstracts databases - whether commercial or open source - presenting it as a virtualized database to an application. This database virtualization technology is the key to enabling Continuent to support any type of environment, whether homogenous or heterogeneous. The result is seamless fail-over capabilities with vertical and horizontal scalability and load balancing that are completely transparent to the application layer.

In its 2006 Top 10 List, Gartner notes that virtualization, whether it's storage or server consolidation, is hitting its stride, according to an article in SearchCIO.com. This sentiment, particularly as it relates to maximizing server effectiveness, is indicative of the demands Continuent is seeing from its own rapidly growing global base of business. Whether online pharmaceutical, financial services or any other from among a host of high growth enterprises that rely on huge stores of mission critical data, Continuent has observed increasing demand for virtualized solutions and responded rapidly and aggressively.

Gartner's optimism about grid computing growth also reflects Continuent's own experience. Gartner states that global leaders like Charles Schwab, Royal Dutch Shell and Sony are among the giants tapping this technology. According to the SearchCIO.com article, while definitions of grid computing vary, its popularity is on the rise. Once again, this aligns with Continuent's view of the growth opportunity in large enterprises.

"Continuent has been and continues to be ahead of the curve in anticipating high growth market segments and delivering effective solutions," continued Teerikorpi. "We expect demand for the kinds of products we deliver to continue to increase markedly in 2006 and beyond."

About Continuent

Continuent ensures business continuity for the enterprise. With flexible solutions that deliver data availability and scalability, Continuent guarantees customers' peace of mind and lets them focus on running a successful business. Continuent's industry breakthrough middleware works with all major databases. Through the use of database virtualization technology, Continuent solutions even support heterogeneous database environments. Continuent products are compatible with a wide variety of hardware, operating system and application environments. Continuent is headquartered in Emeryville, CA, with research labs in France and Finland. For more information, please visit www.continuent.com.