AspenTech Certifies MES Software Compatibility with Stratus ftServer Line; Companies Partner to Deliver High-Availability Solutions for Real-time Manufacturing Enterprise.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers MAYNARD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2004 Stratus Technologies Stratus Technologies is a Maynard, Massachusetts based producer of fault tolerant computers. Stratus Technologies is a 1999 spinoff of Stratus Computer founded in 1980. , Inc., today announced that Aspen Technology Aspen Technology (NASDAQ: AZPN) provides software and professional services to the manufacturing and process industries which allows companies to model, manage, and control their operations. AspenTech was founded in 1981 by MIT professor Dr. , Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : AZPN), a leading supplier of software and services to the process industry, has certified the Stratus(R) ftServer(R) line of high-availability servers to run products from AspenTech's manufacturing execution system – Manufacturing execution system (MES) describes a set of integrated functions within a packaged software system or it can also describe the accumulated functionality within the production management infrastructure of a manufacturing or production company. (MES (Manufacturing Execution Software) Software that provides real time access to plant activities that include equipment, labor, orders and inventory. An MES integrates the data with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems so that management has complete control of ) solutions and from the Aspen Operations Manager See datacenter manager. suite. The two companies have also entered into a partnership agreement to jointly support sales and marketing opportunities where manufacturing customers require application high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. . Several AspenTech clients in the pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and energy industries are already running comprehensive MES solution applications on the Stratus line of Intel(R)-based high-availability servers for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) operating environments. AspenTech today serves more than 1,500 process industry companies in 60 countries. "Process industry customers rely on AspenTech's Manufacturing Operations Manufacturing operations concern the operation of a facility, as opposed to maintenance, supply and distribution, health, and safety, emergency response, human resources, security, information technology and other infrastructural support organizations. Management solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations," said Tom Buckley, vice president of AspenTech's Manufacturing Execution Systems and Integration Products group. "The availability of accurate real-time operating data empowers our customers to respond rapidly to their ever-changing competitive business environment. With so much riding on these systems, deploying our MES and integration solutions on a hardware platform designed for continuous availability, such as the ftServer system, adds an important dimension of cost-effective reliability and performance." Recent examples of this combined solution include the implementation of process information management systems by Queue Systems Inc., an AspenTech premier systems integration partner that specializes in continuous- and batch-process manufacturing systems integration projects. The Stratus ftServer platform enables Queue Systems to satisfy demanding requirements for system availability for their critical- and regulated-process manufacturing customers. At the Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in Augusta, Ga., Queue has implemented a qualified information management solution utilizing AspenTech's InfoPlus.21 application and a Stratus ftServer system. Another qualified InfoPlus.21 and ftServer system information management implementation is under way at the Tyco/Healthcare/Mallinckrodt pharmaceutical plant in Raleigh, N.C. Also, Queue recently implemented a mill-wide information management solution at a leading supplier of specialty pulp, employing InfoPlus.21 running on the Stratus server. "The powerful combination of AspenTech's MES application software and Stratus fault tolerant The ability to continue non-stop when a hardware failure occurs. A fault-tolerant system is designed from the ground up for reliability by building multiples of all critical components, such as CPUs, memories, disks and power supplies into the same computer. servers ensures the flow of critical information throughout the modern manufacturing enterprise," said Michael J. Bliss, president of Queue Systems. "Having the ability to offer clients this level of integrated application performance and reliability on open-systems technology is a valuable asset within our professional services (job) professional services - A department of a supplier providing consultancy and programming manpower for the supplier's products. and products portfolio." Cited recently by IDG's Computerworld as a "2003 Innovative Technology Award" winner, the Stratus ftServer family is a complete line of 1-to-4 way SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) A multiprocessing architecture in which multiple CPUs, residing in one cabinet, share the same memory. SMP systems provide scalability. As business increases, additional CPUs can be added to absorb the increased transaction volume. fault-tolerant Intel(R) processor-based servers for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Advanced Server and Server 2003 Enterprise Edition computing environments. ftServer systems deliver better than 99.999 percent uptime reliability for both the hardware and operating system, providing high levels of reliability for applications where operational continuity and continuous processing are critical. Applications need not be modified to take advantage of the servers' Continuous Processing(R) features. In contrast with high-availability clustered servers, neither special configuration-and- test procedures nor labor-intensive administration is necessary to attain reliability. Simple to deploy, operate and maintain, the ftServer family includes a range of models, configurations and price points to meet departmental-to-data center application requirements. Because these servers are built using open-systems technology and are easy to deploy and maintain, they provide attractive total-cost-of-ownership benefits as compared to high-availability clustered servers from competitors. Editors' Note: AspenTech and Stratus are putting their partnership into action at the INTERPHEX 2004 Conference and Exposition (Booth 143), New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , March 16-18, 2004, where they will be demonstrating the combination of world-class applications and uptime reliability. About AspenTech Aspen Technology, Inc. provides industry-leading software and implementation services that enable process companies to increase efficiency and profitability. AspenTech's engineering product line is used to design and improve plants and processes, maximizing returns throughout an asset's operating life. Its manufacturing/supply-chain product line allows companies to increase margins in their plants and supply chains, by managing customer demand, optimizing production, and streamlining the delivery of finished products. These two offerings are combined to create solutions for enterprise operations management (EOM (End Of Message) A character that signals the end of the current message. ), integrated enterprise-wide systems that provide process manufacturers with the capability to dramatically improve their operating performance. Over 1,500 leading companies already rely on AspenTech's software, including Aventis, Bayer, BASF BASF Bar Association of San Francisco (since 1872; San Francisco, California) BASF Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (German chemical products company) BASF Builders Association of South Florida , BP, ChevronTexaco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Fluor, GlaxoSmithKline, Shell, and Total. For more information, visit www.aspentech.com. About Queue Systems Inc. Headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the state capital and largest city of South Carolina. As of 2006, estimates for the population of the city proper is 122,819[1]. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a small portion of the city extends into Lexington County. , Queue Systems has been offering highly integrated advanced-manufacturing automation and management solutions since 1989. The company designs, implements, and integrates the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) A process control application that collects data from sensors and machines on the shop floor or in remote locations and sends them to a central computer for management and control. and PIMS PIMS Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences PIMS Penalty Minutes (hockey) PIMS Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences PIMS Profit Impact of Market Strategy PIMS Project Information Management System systems that customers need to compete in the global marketplace. The professional staff is expert in phased, non-disruptive, legacy-system migration in critical-processing environments, as well as long-range planning, system-upgrade evaluations, and maintenance planning. About Stratus Technologies Originally founded in 1980 as Stratus Computer, Inc., Stratus Technologies delivers continuously available platforms with unmatched operational simplicity, providing a compelling financial advantage to our customers. Stratus also licenses technology for continuous computing on Intel processor-based platforms to other global manufacturers. Stratus has been named by FORTUNE magazine as one of the 2002 "FORTUNE(R) 100 Best Companies to Work For." Stratus is a U.S. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Enterprise Systems. For more information, visit www.stratus.com. (C) 2004 Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All rights reserved. Stratus, ftServer, and Continuous Processing are registered trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. The Stratus Technologies logo is a trademark of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion