Asia-Pacific Calls on Integrated Research's PROGNOSIS for Business-Critical Systems Management.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2003

During the Recent Economic Downturn, Enterprise Customers

Throughout the Region Invest in Prognosis to Maximize Uptime And

Maintain a High Standard of System Performance

Despite the global economic downturn, demand for business-critical systems management in the Asia-Pacific region shows no sign of abating.

According to Integrated Research's president and CEO Steve Killelea, it is not business as usual -- but business critical -- that really counts today. The cost of downtime for enterprise customers is dramatic and has a devastating impact on their business, which points to an escalated need to ensure business continuity through the deployment of enterprise systems management solutions.

Integrated Research, the world's largest supplier of systems management software for high-availability business environments, counts among its clients some of the region's -- and the world's -- largest financial companies, banks and stock exchanges. In the past six months, the company's PROGNOSIS suite of systems management software products has been sold across the Asia-Pacific region into banks such as Japanese insurance companies Aiful and LifeCo., Taiwan Stock Exchange, Burgan Bank (Kuwait), J-Phone (Japan), Bank of Ayadaya in Thailand and Andhra Bank in India.

Integrated Research also has long-standing relationships with the region's financial, banking, retail and telecommunications leaders such as the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Bangkok Stock Exchange, Emirates Bank (UAE), First National Bank (South Africa), ANZ Bank (Australia), St George Bank (Australia), Lawson (Japan's largest retailer), Optus Communications and Vodacom (South Africa).

"These companies represent the top-tier in terms of financial assets and buying power, which is reflected in their top-tier investments in high-availability hardware and software," says Killelea. "These companies are indicative of the broad geographic scope we consider the Asia-Pacific region, taking into account markets and regions not typically considered part of the region per se."

Terrorism, war and economic tough times are all factoring into the enhanced need for large companies, who are vitally reliant on their internal and customer facing systems, to look at systems management as part of their overall Business Continuity Planning.

"The business continuity facilitated by systems management solutions is key for large financial and banking institutions where business practices rely on 24x7 uptime," says Killelea. "These are companies with substantial investments in high-availability computing platforms such as HP NonStop, where downtime is measured in hundredths of a percentage point each year.

"While the top-tier demographic traditionally has been our primary market, in recent years, we have seen a shift towards more ubiquitous platforms such as UNIX, Linux and Windows. In terms of business-critical availability, these platforms are rapidly gaining favor in the wider context of regional and global e-business, and are moving toward the high-availability standard seen in larger, more expensive mainframes and HP NonStop systems."

PROGNOSIS runs natively on UNIX, Linux and Windows, as well as HP NonStop. Each version was developed using the same core architecture, proven and trusted in business-critical environments.

"It was important that, having identified the growing need for high-availability systems management in the UNIX and Windows markets, the same high level of systems management know-how developed for the HP NonStop environment was made available -- and affordable -- for the broader market," adds Killelea.

"The response has been positive, and an increasing number of companies in the region have specified PROGNOSIS in cross-platform or UNIX- and Windows-only environments. We expect this trend will continue as more and more companies look to economize their IT investments and take advantage of the much-improved security and availability features in the new-generation UNIX, Linux and Windows platforms."

About Integrated Research Ltd

Since 1988 Integrated Research has been a leading developer of real-time systems and application management solutions for high-availability distributed computing environments based on the proven PROGNOSIS architecture. The world's largest bank, telecommunication company, stock exchange, computer hardware manufacture and ISP all rely on Integrated Research solutions, as do customers in over 43 countries. Integrated Research is a publicly listed company with offices in the USA, Europe and Australia, and a distribution network spanning more than 60 countries. Information about Integrated Research and its products is available at http://www.ir.com.