News release

Oracle Partners with Compaq to Deliver Innovative Cluster Technology for Scalability and High Availability

Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), the largest provider of software for e-business, today announced a multi-year technology and business partnership with Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) to deliver clustered computer configurations based upon Oracle9i Real Application Clusters and Compaq TruCluster Server.

Oracle and Compaq plan to tightly integrate components of Compaq's Tru64 UNIX cluster technology into Oracle9i Real Application Clusters to create a more scalable, manageable, reliable and cost-effective clustered database platform. Oracle9i Real Application Clusters is expected to be available on Oracle supported platforms, with Compaq as the lead development partner and Compaq Tru64 UNIX as a development and reference platform.

This partnership is expected to deliver value to customers by enabling them to dramatically reduce the cost and risk of implementing clustered solutions while also speeding implementation, and making more efficient use of critical IT resources.

"Clustered systems have historically presented considerable challenges that have kept them from being adopted more widely, and this announcement seems to address the most critical of these challenges head on," said Carl Olofson, program director for Information and Data Management Software Research at IDC. "The combination of the new scalability model introduced with Real Application Clusters and the strong system level clustering of TruCluster Server attacks the key technical problems; while the sales and marketing program looks very impressive."

The agreement between the two companies will focus on the following areas:

• Technology Development- Oracle will license selected Compaq Tru64 UNIX clustering technology to be integrated into Oracle9i Real Application Clusters to create portable clusterware. This portable clusterware will enable customers to monitor the status and performance of the cluster through features such as load balancing, failover, and failover detection. Oracle9i Real Application Clusters with portable clusterware, initially available on Tru64 UNIX, will become available on Oracle supported computing platforms.
• Solutions Development- Compaq and Oracle will work to develop pre-integrated, pre-tested reference configurations of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters on Compaq Tru64 UNIXAlphaServersystems. Customers can use these configurations as building blocks to easily respond to fluctuating workloads and meet the scalability demands of e-businesses.
• Market Development- Compaq and Oracle have established a dedicated fund to focus on building market awareness for clustered solutions, training for sales and technical staff and supporting direct and indirect channels.

In addition, Compaq and Oracle plan to provide integrated customer support and consulting services to help customers plan, design, implement, manage and support clustered solutions.

"Our goal is to bring the most advanced clustering technology to the largest number of customers possible," said Michael Rocha, senior vice president, Platform Technologies Division, Oracle. "This partnership with Compaq, whose clustering technology is widely recognized as industry leading, will help us ensure that businesses of all sizes can reap the benefits of capacity on demand and efficiently respond to the fluctuating workloads that are so common in an e-business environment."

Oracle9i Real Application Clusters is Oracle's platform-independent next-generation clustering technology that provides transparent application scalability by quickly and efficiently sharing frequently accessed data across all the computers in a cluster. An integral part of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, portable clusterware will bring low-end platforms levels of scalability and availability previously possible only with high-end proprietary systems.

"Compaq has more than 25 years of experience in delivering highly available and scalable solutions through proven cluster technology," said Howard Elias, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's Business Critical Server Group. "By partnering with an industry leader such as Oracle to make clustered solutions easier to buy, deploy and manage, Compaq and Oracle will provide customers with new levels of competitive advantage."

Compaq Tru64 UNIX cluster technology has been recognized as the industry's leading UNIX-based clustering solution because of unique capabilities such as a cluster-wide file system, single system image, and the ability to manage a cluster with the same tools as a single system.

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