Avanade Benchmarks Top Performance for Microsoft Business Intelligence on Unisys ES7000 Servers; White Paper Compares Systems, Price/Performance.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 29, 2004

To achieve the most efficient business intelligence functionality at the lowest total cost of ownership, enterprises may want to consider Unisys ES7000 servers running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and equipped with Microsoft(R) Analysis Services and Microsoft(R) SQL Server(TM) Accelerator for Business Intelligence. As part of a competitive research project Avanade(R) Inc., a leading global technology integrator, found that this combination of technologies delivered the best price/performance.

Evaluation results demonstrated that data warehouses built on a Windows- and Intel-based ES7000 server from Unisys running 64-bit Microsoft SQL Server 2000 cost 50 percent less than comparable data warehouses built on competitive platforms and business intelligence solutions.

Avanade benchmarked Microsoft(R) Analysis Services on a Unisys ES7000 server using 64-bit Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 technology with up to 40 GB of memory. The tests used real sales data and were performed with 8-, 12- and 16-CPU configurations.

"This benchmarking exercise is part of Avanade's ongoing commitment to help customers maximize the value of their infrastructure through the assessment and optimization of IT systems. It's clear that more sophisticated analytics are now possible for companies with data-intensive business functions," said Eric Blankenburg, Avanade principal director. "The results were compelling: The Unisys ES7000 family with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and business intelligence applications delivered nearest to real-time reporting, greater analysis, and faster processing speed."

Companies that must address critical regulatory compliance, such as the real-time disclosure requirements mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, are faced with a pressing need for business intelligence. In industries such as the healthcare sector, massive data files require robust data warehousing infrastructure. Finally, mergers and acquisitions in many sectors have compounded the challenge of data access for acquiring companies.

"Superior business intelligence performance is critical for companies that need to use massive amounts of data such as records stored in compliance with industry-specific regulations or detailed customer information for highly targeted sales campaigns," said Bill Jefferies, director, Business Intelligence Solutions for Unisys. "This benchmark result validates Unisys' leadership in making true enterprise performance available on the Windows operating system and, in particular, in leveraging the power of 64-bit Windows technology to provide enterprise-class performance."

Unsurpassed Speed, Near Real-time Reporting

Performance highlights that contributed to Avanade's conclusion include:

-- Nearer to real-time reporting: Peak parallel execution rates

cut time to complete batch cycles, so that report frequency

and freshness rose accordingly.

-- Deeper, richer analytics: Faster processing of more complex

tasks dramatically increased the depth and richness of

analytic reporting.

-- High performance, concurrency, and scalability for very large

data volumes: The Microsoft and Unisys solution surpassed all

competitive configurations' support for 500 concurrent users

or more, for very large data volumes - 500 million records -

with performance gains that were nearly linear.

Compared to other marketplace solutions, Microsoft SQL Server and Unysis ES7000 hardware proved a powerful combination suitable for advanced business intelligence operations. A white paper explaining the evaluation details and analysis of results is available to the public immediately http://www.avanade.com/_uploaded/resource/avanadeenterpriseanalytics64 bitwhitepaperfy04.pdf. (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.)

About Avanade

Avanade is the premier global technology integrator for Microsoft solutions in the enterprise. Avanade helps customers use Microsoft technology to cut costs and improve results through standardization, consolidation, and integration. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com.

Avanade, the Avanade logo, Avanade Connected Architecture, and ACA .NET are registered trademarks or trademarks of Avanade Inc. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.