Storage: HP and SAS Institute Achieve New Performance Advantages for Data Warehousing - HP/SAS Institute offering combines HP's 64-bit HP-UX 11 technology and high-end HP 9000 V2500 Enterprise server - Product Information

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, April 19, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Company and SAS Institute Inc. Monday announced the first 64-bit SAS Scalable Performance Data Server available only on HP platforms. This exclusive HP/SAS Institute offering combines the superior performance and scalability of HP's 64-bit HP-UX 11 technology and high-end HP 9000 V2500 Enterprise server with SAS Institute's leading data-warehousing, information-delivery software and customer-relationship management solutions.

Through joint research and development efforts, HP and SAS Institute have optimized and performance-tuned the Institute's Scalable Performance Data Server to take full advantage of the capabilities of the HP-UX 11 64-bit operating environment on HP's V2500 server. SAS Institute's Scalable Performance Data Server is a high-performance parallel data store that provides a decision-support-based environment for optimal and secure storage and retrieval for high-volume data warehouses and data marts. Designed to complement the capabilities of SAS Institute's open, integrated and complete data-warehousing solution, the Scalable Performance Data Server provides a seamless environment to quickly process vast amounts of mission-critical business data using the latest parallel-processing and data-server capabilities. HP and SAS Institute share a common approach to providing customers with best-in-class solutions that solve their business critical issues. Today customers continually need to increase overall performance and data-access times for quicker time-to-market response and to meet business objectives. By combining the sheer processing power and 128GB-memory capacity of the V2500 with the Scalable Performance Data Server, customers are able to quickly process large numbers of queries in parallel, resulting in more accurate and reliable data. Additionally, customers can achieve performance and scalability advantages as the need to process terabytes of data becomes more imperative. "This is a true breakthrough product differentiation for both HP and SAS Institute customers," said Jennie Grimes, solutions manager for HP's Business Critical Computing Business Unit. "The incredible performance of HP's V2500 uniquely combined with SAS Institute's 64-bit capabilities in its Scalable Performance Data Server brings decision-support capabilities to a level unmatched by any other offering today. HP and SAS Institute together have invested in developing the right combination for what we see as ever-increasing processing demands placed on business-intelligence solutions." As a direct result of the joint R&D effort, Hewlett-Packard and SAS Institute have secured a deal with one of Europe's largest telecommunications providers to facilitate the dynamics of its customer data to provide more precise customer profiling and segmentation information. This multi-million dollar win includes the joint configuration of the Scalable Performance Data Server for HP-UX running SAS Institute's business-intelligence tools on the V2500. "Both companies recognize the importance of delivering performance without sacrificing an organization's IT budget, better enabling an IT director to justify the investment in technology," said Jim Davis, SAS Institute IT strategist. "Working together to leverage our individual strengths, HP and SAS Institute have simplified the technical integration effort that so often distracts IT from delivering on their business commitments. We didn't stop until proving that performance and value where it counts most -- in the real world." As the Scalable Performance Data Server accelerates the extraction, transformation and loading of source data from mission-critical business applications -- including legacy, enterprise resource planning (ERP), call data records (CDR) and electronic points of sale -- the 64-bit Scalable Performance Data Server exclusively for HP-UX 11 will ensure customers attain not only a competitive advantage, but a safe and proven choice for their growing business. The SAS Scalable Performance Data Server for HP-UX is a strategic addition to the portfolio of joint initiatives and offerings by HP and SAS Institute. Ongoing efforts include the HP/SAS Institute initiative to deliver joint global data-warehouse solutions for customer-relationship management spanning all major industries; the HP and SAS Institute Customer Technology Center (CTC); and the jointly sponsored Data Mining Discovery Center, where the two companies fuse together products, analytical methodologies and consulting expertise to deliver world-class customer-relationship management offerings. Availability The 64-bit SAS Scalable Performance Data Server for HP-UX 11 is available immediately. FMI: http://www.hp.com. SAS Institute, one of the top 10 independent software vendors, is the leader in decision support and data warehousing, providing integrated enterprise information-delivery solutions. The Institute markets packaged business solutions for vertical industry and departmental applications, as well as an integrated suite of software tools and consulting services, that allow companies to transform the wide variety of data within their organizations into information that business users and researchers need to make better decisions. SAS software and services are used at more than 33,000 business, government, and university sites in 115 countries. Founded in 1976, SAS Institute is the world's largest privately held software company, with 1998 revenue of $871 million. FMI: www.sas.com