News release

HP Arms Customers Against Power Outages with Power Assurance Solutions and Global Recovery Centers

PowerTrust II-MR, a Mid-range Power Supply Solution, Protects Mission-critical Applications and Data

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 23, 2000

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) today announced PowerTrust II-MR, a mid-range uninterruptible power supply (UPS) product, and the opening of six business recovery centers worldwide. The PowerTrust II-MR, the latest addition to the HP PowerTrust II line, and the business recovery centers are designed to protect business-critical applications and data from damaging power outages.

"These two offerings are part of HP's continuing efforts to ensure that customers have maximized uptime and complete protection from unforeseen power disruptions," said George Ferguson, worldwide marketing manager, HP Business Recovery Services. "The PowerTrust II-MR and the business recovery centers are excellent examples of HP's commitment to provide the highest power protection levels and an always-on Internet infrastructure."

"HP will be able to leverage its high-availability, mission-critical business when addressing the business continuity market," said Jamie Snowdon, manager, European Services Research, IDC. "HP was one of the first vendors to reposition its overall support business in terms of availability, which will give it an advantage when selling the new, combined business continuity and mission-critical services. Additionally, HP is uniquely positioned in the business continuity market as one of only two global vendors to be able to offer business recovery services worldwide."¹

PowerTrust II-MR

PowerTrust II-MR's online double-conversion technology provides instantaneous backup power and the highest level of power quality essential to run today's demanding e-services applications. Total software compatibility ensures an orderly shutdown procedure to protect data and equipment.

The PowerTrust II-MR UPS system incorporates:

• high performance and reliability with online double-conversion technology for maximum uptime and battery performance;

• high availability with planned redundancy options and hot-swappable batteries and electronics allowing maintenance without interrupting power to protected applications; and

• ease of use with factory integration for simple installation, intuitive display and maximum compatibility.

The rack-mounted PowerTrust II-MR provides customers with increased flexibility, power capacity and manageability for HP 3000 and HP 9000 servers, HP NetServers and workstations, as well as Windows NT®/2000 servers. It also includes three power configurations to meet a broad range of requirements, from entry-level enterprise servers to large server systems. The PowerTrust II-MR's scalability makes it ideal for dynamic environments with an expanding number of servers, hubs, routers and other rack-mounted equipment.

Business Recovery Centers

The six new business recovery centers are located in the following cities:

• Atlanta, Ga.
• Sacramento, Calif.
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Kobe, Japan
• Sydney, Australia
• Ankara, Turkey (expected to open later this year)

All the new centers will be offering the full range of HP Business Recovery Services. It includes continuous services, which switch over business processing across a wide area network in minutes, and immediate services, which restore end-user connectivity to business- critical applications in two hours or more.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services and an Internet infrastructure that's always on.

HP has 86,000 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

¹ International Data Corporation: European IT Services Multi-client Study, Business Continuity Services - Volume III: Competitive Report, 2000.

Windows NT is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft