News release

HP Extends Failure Protection Software Solution to Windows 2000 Platform

HP Somersault Increases User Productivity and Data Integrity for SAP Environments

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 12, 2001

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) today announced the availability of the HP Somersault failure protection software and service solution for the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 platform. The solution helps users increase productivity by reducing the downtime caused by system failures in SAP environments.

The HP Somersault solution minimizes the chance that the SAP Enqueue Service, which centrally manages the details of a transaction within an SAP environment, will be the location of a system-wide single point of failure -- protecting the system from hardware failures, operator errors and transient software faults.

Using what is called process-mirroring technology, the HP Somersault solution automatically preserves the integrity of data during transactions by detecting any data loss and resuming work with a duplicate copy. The HP Somersault solution helps maximize productivity and system availability by enabling user sessions to continue, even in the event of a failover of the central R/3 service within a Microsoft cluster of computers.

"Losing transactions because of failures or errors can become a nightmare in SAP environments," said Edgar Pfanner, marketing manager, HP Global SAP Alliance. "HP's process-mirroring technology is a key element in maintaining high availability and data integrity in SAP environments in an HP-UX environment and now in Windows 2000."

As industry leaders in managing SAP environments, HP and SAP have completed more than 10,000 joint installations worldwide. The HP Somersault solution for Windows 2000 joins the HP-UX version, introduced in August 2000. Targeted at SAP environments vital to businesses, the solution complements HP Services' expertise in delivering high availability, security, manageability, reliability and scalability.

"SAP customers demand the highest degree of availability. HP Somersault on Windows 2000 helps provide the availability assurance," said Steve Jenkins, SAP Global Alliance Manager for Microsoft. "Combined with HP's service offerings, SAP customers can achieve the lower cost of ownership of a Microsoft solution without sacrificing availability."

"The extended offering gives our customers assurance that their SAP solutions on Windows 2000 are protected from service failure, reducing the high cost of downtime," said Esteban Lora, Microsoft Global Partner Manager for SAP. "The HP Somersault solution represents increased availability on Windows-based SAP environments."

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 all. HP 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 and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

HP-UX Release 10.20 and later and 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.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed 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, 2000, 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.