News release

HP Unveils SP-in-a-Box 2000 Solution for Microsoft Windows and Exchange 2000

SP-in-a-Box Pre-integrated Solution Offers Service Providers Lower Ownership Costs With Faster Time to Market

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 21, 2000

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) today announced the development of the Service Provider-in-a-Box (SP-in-a-Box) 2000 solution for the Microsoft® Exchange 2000 and Windowsâ 2000 server. This version of the SP-in-a-Box 2000 solution offers service providers increased functionality, performance and reliability for next-generation technologies and applications based on Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 servers and will also support "apps-on-tap," mobility and interactive WebTV solutions.

The solution enables service providers to offer their customers Windows 2000- and Exchange 2000-based applications on the SP-in-a-Box framework with value-added services, such as instant and unified messaging, team collaboration workspaces and mobile access. The SP-in-a-Box 2000 solution will allow customers to deploy messaging and collaboration services faster with potentially less cost by outsourcing hardware, network and application management to a service provider. These application providers can use the SP-in-a-Box 2000 solution to scale their critical hosting environment as demand requires, and manage directory, protocol and storage issues with dedicated front-end and back-end servers.

"Our extensive experience in providing always-on Internet infrastructure solutions to service providers around the world gives us perspective into the business, technology and service needs of the market," said David Stubbs, general manager, HP Microsoft Services Operation. "By incorporating HP and Microsoft technology, the SP-in-a-Box pre-integrated solution reduces implementation costs with a faster time to revenue, ideal for service providers for whom value-added services are the differentiators."

"Microsoft helps service providers establish new and differentiated revenue-generating services to create new business opportunities," said Thomas Koll, vice president, Network Solutions Group, Microsoft Corp. "By creating integrated solutions which offer increased and improved services to their customers, HP and Microsoft are set to deliver compelling new solutions which best meet their customers' needs."

Based on HP technology, end-to-end management and quality of service (QoS) technologies, the SP-in-a-Box 2000 integrated solution allows SPs to create and deliver on service-level agreements with features such as partitioned data stores, fault-tolerant SMTP routing and active-clustering. ASPs will be able to offer a richer set of managed services with the Exchange 2000 platform's functionality and breadth of features, including Web store, document services, wireless device and unified messaging. This innovative Web and applications hosting framework integrates Microsoft's Windows 2000 server and Exchange 2000 server with the award-winning HP Netserver systems and storage hardware to create a reliable, always-on infrastructure solution.

Embedded with HP's core communication services, the SP-in-a-Box solution assists all aspects of a service provider's lifecycle. Features include prioritized Web traffic with HP WebQoS, usage-based billing with HP Smart Internet Usage and Portal Infranet, and easily managed network services with the HP Openview solution suite, including Network Node Manager, Vantagepoint Operations and ManageX. HP's Microsoft Services Operation provides solution design, planning and implementation. HP also offers innovative, pay-per-use financing packages that enable companies to rapidly build and deploy cost-effective infrastructures at lower risk. HP's mission-critical support helps to train service providers and delivers technical support around the clock. This complete bundle allows service providers to concentrate on those factors critical to success in today's competitive market: a focused, core business and fast, new services at a lower cost.

The SP-in-a-Box 2000 solution is immediately available for purchase.

About HP's Network and Service Provider Business Unit

HP supplies communications IT infrastructure to every Fortune 500 communications company in the world today. HP and its partners deliver management, network intelligence, billing, customer-care and value-added services solutions for UNIX® and Windows 2000-based system platforms, enabling service providers to migrate from network- to customer-focused business models as the Internet and telephony worlds converge.

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 88,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

Microsoft, Windows NT and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Oct. 31, 1999, and subsequently filed reports. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.