U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy Launch First Real-Time, Enterprise Inter-Domain Messaging Capability Using Bantu Platform; Bantu's IDM Gateway Allows Military Personnel to Locate and Communicate With One Another, Regardless of Service Affiliation

Business Wire, April 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Bantu, a premier provider of secure Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM), today announced that the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy have deployed its Inter-Domain Messaging (IDM) Gateway technology, allowing military personnel to instantly locate and communicate across disparate military networks, locations and computing platforms - regardless of service affiliation - for the first time.

"In cooperation with the Air Force and Navy, we're resolving one of the most complex and daunting problems facing government, delivering the right information to the right person at the right time," said U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Kenneth Blakely, Chief of Operations for U.S. Army Knowledge Online (AKO). "The fact that we can instantly identify, locate and collaborate with personnel across the military branches is a tremendous milestone in enabling faster and more effective information sharing."

Bantu's trusted platform has been the Net-Centric, instant collaboration backbone underlying the enterprise knowledge management portals for each of the military services, including the AKO, the DoD's largest enterprise portal with over 1.8 million users. IDM Gateway permits the military services to connect their discrete EIM implementations/networks into one federated secure collaboration system across the Department of Defense (DoD), enabling them to enhance communications for planning, training and joint operations. With this new capability, Bantu will provide the services with a real-time collaboration network that their 3.5 million military personnel can use to communicate and collaborate.

"The Air Force and DoD leadership have challenged us to transform operations by increasing the speed of information sharing with our counterparts in the other services," said Lt. Colonel Joe Besselman, Program Director for the Global Combat Support Systems and the U.S. Air Force Portal (AFP). "Bantu creates a virtual real-time information sharing network across the entire military, enabling faster and greater awareness and collaboration."

The web-based, thin client application provides EIM, presence management and alerting capabilities, while meeting the government's unique and stringent enterprise technology requirements. Bantu is certified and deployed on government sensitive and secret networks, meeting DoD requirements for security, scalability, centralized control, platform independence, standards-based architecture, ease of deployment and support. IDM Gateway is designed to federate and connect participating organizations regardless of the location, architecture or security infrastructure of their systems. In addition, Bantu's IDM Gateway includes tools to implement agency and government-wide policies, where each participating agency may define the types of services offered in interacting with other connected agencies, as well as the level of access that individual agency personnel have internally and externally.

Bantu's EIM application has an extensive footprint across the federal government, including other defense and civilian agencies. This cross-agency communication backbone provides a secure platform for any federal, state or local agency that is involved in homeland security and emergency response efforts.

Proponents within the DoD are currently working to bring other homeland defense organizations into the initiative.

"Government officials at all levels have determined that improved information sharing within and across agencies is a top priority and critical to homeland security and emergency response," said Larry Schlang, CEO of Bantu. "Now that the government has already made our technology available to multiple agencies and millions of users, the ability to extend instant communication across government boundaries will further accelerate the pace and effectiveness of government decision making and response."

About Bantu, Inc.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Bantu, Inc. is a leader in secure Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM). The Bantu EIM Platform provides robust messaging, presence, alerting and conferencing that enhance real-time communication and collaboration, resulting in greater productivity and operational effectiveness. Bantu EIM provides the highest levels of security and scalability, is platform-independent, and easily integrates into any business application or service. Bantu's government, corporate and education customers include the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, British Army, HSBC, Sprint, Wells Fargo, The George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University. For more information, visit www.bantu.com.