AVAKI First to Converge Compute and Data Grids in New Software Solution.

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2001

AVAKI 2.0 Accelerates Time to Market, Increases ROI,

and Sets the Stage for Web Services 

Editor's Note: AVAKI also announced today closing of $16M in Funding and the formation of a Technical Advisory Board. (See AVAKI release "Avaki Corporation Closes $16 Million in Funding From Polaris Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Sofinnova," also dated October 23, 2001).

On the heels of closing $16 M in funding from Polaris Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Sofinnova, Avaki Corporation today announced charter availability of AVAKI 2.0, the first commercial grid software solution providing highly secure, virtualized access to data and compute resources in wide-area, multi-platform environments.

AVAKI 2.0 makes resources available for large-scale computing by allowing heterogeneous networks to function as a single environment. This innovative solution allows enterprises to capitalize on the true power of grid computing and thereby accelerate time to market, increase ROI on existing computing infrastructure, and reduce the barriers associated with implementing Web Services.

"AVAKI 2.0 is based upon proven technology deployed in some of the country's most sophisticated commercial, government, and research computing environments," said David Fish, CEO of AVAKI. "We have begun to work with industry-leading companies such as Compaq and Sun to help advance grid computing in the enterprise world. Our expertise has brought us to the forefront of this marketplace, leading us to truly understand the opportunity such technology presents businesses today."

"Compaq views grid technology as an important, emerging area of computing," said Bill Blake, Vice President of High Performance Technical Computing at Compaq Computer Corporation, "and we believe that AVAKI's object-oriented paradigm for managing and distributing applications and data is unique in the emerging grid computing landscape."

Secure, virtualized access to data and compute resources

AVAKI 2.0 unifies and makes transparently available all networked resources - data, processing, and applications - in a single virtual environment, an AVAKI grid. This goes far beyond traditional "grid" computing, which has mainly focused on aggregating only processing power from networked computers.

AVAKI 2.0's unique data grid capability enables secure access to data across wide-area and multi-platform computing environments. Data can be securely accessed, without being physically moved, from remote locations by applications and users. Companies in the Life Sciences industry, for example, are facing an explosion of data in the post-genomics world, and are simultaneously experiencing the need to collaborate extensively with one another. These facts, combined with a projected 100x increase in data volume, demand a new approach to data sharing and access, such as AVAKI data grids.

"Grid solutions are quickly becoming a mainstream phenomena," explained Wolfgang Gentzsch, director, grid computing, Sun Microsystems. "AVAKI is clearly offering technology that encompasses all the required capabilities to enable and manage cross-organizational access to shared resources, including scalability, administrative control, built-in security and automated failure recovery."

Secure infrastructure that automatically recovers

AVAKI 2.0 features integrated, robust, fine-grained security that spans grids covering multiple administrative domains, sites and even company boundaries, providing authentication, access control and encryption. AVAKI 2.0 was built from the beginning with integrated failure detection and recovery services, ensuring system availability and resiliency in the face of inevitable system failures, which are the norm, not the exception, in complex systems.

The convergence of grids and Web Services

Gartner predicts, by 2005, Web Services will drive a 30 percent increase in the efficiency of IT development projects. All of AVAKI 2.0's capabilities are built upon a unique Web Services-oriented grid protocol. Extensible naming, secure mutual authentication, location transparency, and support for migration transparency constitute the core services of this protocol, and form the basis for AVAKI grids.

"A grid is a heterogeneous network that appears and functions like one large operating environment, and Web Services are about application-to-application connectivity across heterogeneous environments," Fish states. "We believe that grids are, therefore, the natural platform for Web Services. While giving enterprises the power to simplify large heterogeneous networks, AVAKI 2.0 also ultimately positions businesses for future deployment of Web Services."

About AVAKI 2.0:

AVAKI 2.0 is currently available and priced on a per-server licensing model. It is currently being evaluated at several corporate sites in the Life Sciences industry, and the company is actively soliciting a selected set of charter users of the 2.0 product. To apply or to obtain more information, interested parties should email [e-mail] or call 617-374-2500.

About AVAKI:

Avaki Corporation offers the first commercialized grid software solution to provide highly secure, virtualized access to data and compute resources in wide-area, multi-platform environments. The flagship product, AVAKI 2.0, allows enterprises to capitalize on the true power of grid computing and thereby, accelerate time to market, increase ROI on existing computing infrastructure, and reduce the barriers associated with implementing Web Services. AVAKI has $16 million in funding led by Polaris Venture Partners, and joined by General Catalyst and Sofinnova. AVAKI is located in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.avaki.com.

Compaq is a trademark of Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.