BNSF Selects GRIDSCALE to Prevent Downtime and Improve Resource Utilization for Business-Critical Applications.

xkoto's GRIDSCALE to play key role for BNSF, one of North America's largest rail networks

WALTHAM, Mass. -- xkoto (www.xkoto.com), the database virtualization company, today announced that BNSF Railway Company has chosen GRIDSCALE to provide continuous availability and scalability for the company's most critical applications.

GRIDSCALE was selected by BNSF after a thorough review process determined that traditional database replication and high-availability solutions were too costly and did not provide the required levels of scalability and availability. Another key consideration in the selection of GRIDSCALE was its ability to load balance database queries across a set of database servers while maintaining transaction consistency. GRIDSCALE is being deployed by the company as it moves its tier-one applications to a continuously available environment.

In 2008, BNSF was selected for the InformationWeek 500, which honors the most innovative users of business technology.

"Our goal was to eliminate both planned and unplanned downtime for our business-critical applications. Plus, we had concerns about the amount of underutilized servers that our traditional active-passive database clusters required," said Jeff McIntyre, assistant vice president, Technology Services, of BNSF Railway. "With GRIDSCALE, we can scale applications horizontally across an active-active configuration of database servers. As a result, we expect that GRIDSCALE will enable us to dramatically increase server utilization and eliminate downtime to support our demanding business requirements."

GRIDSCALE virtualizes the database infrastructure, enabling businesses to distribute application load across multiple instances of commercial databases running on clusters of low-cost hardware, mid-range systems and virtual machines. With GRIDSCALE, businesses can improve application performance and achieve continuous availability for business-critical applications. Visit http://www.xkoto.com/database_virtualization for more information about the benefits of database virtualization.

"Increasingly, GRIDSCALE is recognized as the product of choice for businesses that have an urgent requirement to keep their business-critical applications running 24/7," said David Patrick, President and CEO of xkoto. "IT executives are under pressure today to improve the performance of critical applications, while getting more out of their existing infrastructure. GRIDSCALE is the ideal solution for many of these organizations."

About BNSF

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), BNSF Railway Company operates one of the largest North American rail networks, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF Railway Company is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, carries the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough low-sulfur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF Railway Company is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.

About xkoto

xkoto, the database virtualization company, enables businesses to ensure optimal performance for mission-critical applications. xkoto's GRIDSCALE software uses active-active technology to distribute application load across multiple instances of commercial databases running on low-cost hardware, mid-range systems and virtual machines. GRIDSCALE provides continuous database availability resulting in the elimination of planned and unplanned downtime and low-cost disaster recovery solutions. In 2008, xkoto was named InformationWeek's "Startup of the Year," and in 2009 the company was recognized by Gartner as a "Cool Vendor in IT Operations and Virtualization." For more information, visit www.xkoto.com or call 1.416.440.7001.