News release

HP Solutions Help Transform Oracle's E-Business Infrastructure

Reorganization and Integration of Oracle's e-Mail Infrastructure Completes First Step in Global Consolidation

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 20, 2001

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) today announced a key milestone in its alliance with Oracle to help transform Oracle's e-business infrastructure. The first step in transitioning Oracle's internal production data environment to HP 9000 Enterprise Servers was recently completed with the consolidation of Oracle's global e-mail infrastructure.

The first implementation consolidated 97 separate e-mail systems and 120 databases around the world to two HP 9000 servers running four databases. As a result of this initiative, Oracle has a more manageable, cost-effective solution with 24x7x365 centralized support.

"The HP technologies deployed in this project provide companies like Oracle with the flexibility, availability, scalability and manageability they need to effectively run mission-critical applications," said Mark Hudson, worldwide marketing director, HP Business Systems and Technology Organization. "HP's work with Oracle on this project clearly demonstrates how we provide customers with e-business solutions that help them significantly reduce costs and thrive in the Internet economy."

HP has worked with Oracle every step of the way to streamline and centralize its e-business infrastructure under the Oracle E-Business Suite. This transition has been supported with education and training tailored to meet Oracle's needs and achieve the company's goal of more than $1 billion in information technology cost savings. This latest step with HP is a key component in Oracle's successful transformation to an e-business.

"In our efforts to reduce costs, maximize productivity and significantly improve IT service, we worked with HP to simplify our e-business infrastructure," said Gary Roberts, Oracle senior vice president of Global IT. "Future applications will be deployed quickly using this first solution as a guide."

The completed e-business infrastructure for e-mail represents one of Oracle's largest global implementations, supporting over 40,000 users worldwide. As a result of this implementation, Oracle is able to run a more manageable and scaleable solution, dramatically reducing the resource requirement for worldwide support.

The new Oracle e-mail infrastructure is supported by a centralized data center, which includes two HP 9000 V2500 Enterprise Servers running HP-UX® 11. Oracle met its high availability goals by implementing the co-developed Oracle® Parallel Failsafe, which integrates Oracle and HP technology including Oracle Parallel Server and HP MC/Serviceguard. Oracle also has employed HP Business Continuity Support services, including the HP High Availability Observatory; these services provide an environment in which systems are monitored continuously every day of the year.

In addition to transitioning its production data environment to HP, Oracle will be integrating HP infrastructure into Oracle Business OnLine™, the application-hosting side of Oracle's business. Oracle Business OnLine delivers Oracle's E-Business Suite of applications with all the necessary services for a complete online solution. With Oracle's industry-leading, Internet-based applications software, customers have secure access to mission-critical applications through a standard Web-browser interface. The first step of this integration was completed with the launch of the highly successful http://www.sales.oracle.com, running on HP UNIX® platforms.

"HP was a key partner in the design, testing and implementation of oraclesalesonline," said Jesper Andersen, Oracle vice president, CRM Online Services. "The results speak for themselves: 10,000 customers and 150,000 users after six months of operation. More importantly we achieved our goal of no downtime."

Along with the Oracle production data move to HP-UX, Oracle is also installing HP-UX servers in CRM Development. It is anticipated that all CRM production data will be deployed at Oracle on HP-UX during the first half of 2001 and that all Oracle CRM applications will be developed on HP-UX servers by the end of 2001.

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.

HP-UX Release 11.00 and later (in both 32- and 64-bit configurations) on all HP 9000 computers are Open Group UNIX 95 branded products.

UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group.

Oracle is a registered U.S. trademark of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, Calif.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning proposed new products, services, or developments; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The risks, uncertainties and assumptions referred to above include the ability of HP to retain and motivate key employees; the timely development, production and acceptance of products and services and their feature sets; the challenge of managing asset levels, including inventory; the flow of products into third-party distribution channels; the difficulty of keeping expense growth at modest levels while increasing revenues; 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, 2000, and subsequently filed reports. HP does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.