Belkin Plugs in HP Superdome System; Unplugs Sun.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 2004

Manufacturer Taps HP to Replace Sun Solaris and Consolidate

Information Technology Infrastructure; Performance Soars 250 Percent

HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) today announced that Belkin Corporation, a leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions and enterprise options, has migrated to the HP 9000 Superdome server and HP-UX operating system to run its critical business applications.

The high-end UNIX(R) HP Superdome server is providing a stable, reliable environment for manufacturing, payroll and other core business functions at Belkin, one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.

After selecting HP to replace the Sun Solaris system for IT consolidation in its main corporate data center, Belkin realized a performance increase averaging 250 percent,(1) allowing the company to speed its business processes, position itself for future growth and realize the benefits of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy by tightening the linkage between business and IT.

"HP has a rich history of offering high-availability technology solutions and the HP Superdome server's outstanding performance and reliability provide Belkin with the robustness it requires to capitalize on change, crucial to a company that averages 35 percent sales growth annually," said Jim Milton, senior vice president, Enterprise Systems Group, and managing director, HP Americas. "As Belkin sets its sights on expansion, HP looks forward to continuing to help the company bring operational changes to the bottom line by deploying cost-effective, flexible technology solutions with our solid product roadmap and portfolio of world-class IT products and solutions."

Belkin designs and manufactures products for home, enterprise and mobile interconnectivity, such as KVM console switches and Power Protection devices. Central to Belkin's success is the ability to adapt to changes in its customers' business, including the recent success of the Apple iPod.

With business-critical applications running on the HP Superdome system, including manufacturing and supply chain planning, HP can help Belkin leverage its enterprise to effectively meet such surges in market demand and deliver payroll to its employees on time.

"Adopting the HP Superdome platform to consolidate our IT infrastructure supports our overall strategy of employing technology that can reduce infrastructure costs and bring operational savings to the bottom line," said Chet Pipkin, chief executive officer, Belkin Corp. "Our business infrastructure applications are up and running smoother, faster and more efficiently, allowing us to better align our technology resources with demands internally, as well as externally with customers, and realize the benefits of HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy."

Belkin's new HP 9000 Superdome and HP-UX 11i operating system run a full suite of upgraded Oracle enterprise applications for supply chain planning, financials, manufacturing, purchasing, human resources and payroll. Data volume grew by 30 percent when Belkin upgraded the Oracle suite. The HP Superdome successfully handled the additional processing power required to run the suite. Vigorous testing by Belkin showed that the new system delivered on average, a 225 to 275 percent performance increase over the Sun Solaris technology it replaced.(1)

Belkin also found the three-year maintenance agreement with HP more cost effective, delivering a greatly expected improved total cost-of-ownership that gives assurances of support for years to come. The added capability of in-box upgrades on HP 9000 Superdome systems to multiple generations of Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2-based HP Integrity systems also will help Belkin evolve as its business needs change.

"The maintenance costs on the Sun server per year were simply too high for us. The alternative solution offered by HP, in addition to delivering significant performance enhancements, provided cost-of-ownership reductions and creates a solution that maximizes application availability," said John Adcock, network services manager, Belkin. "With the Superdome deployment, maintenance and upgrades are simpler and less expensive; the footprint is smaller thanks to IT consolidation, and the new system provides an easy path to bring both Windows and Linux operating systems into our enterprise."

More information on HP Superdome is available at www.hp.com/products1/servers/scalableservers/superdome.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the fiscal year ending on Oct. 31, 2003, HP revenue totaled $73.1 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

(1) Internal testing by Belkin of rate of data processing comparing the performance of Belkin's existing Sun Solaris platform and Oracle suite against the new HP Superdome platform and HP-UX environment and upgraded Oracle suite.

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