EMC Helps Visa U.S.A. Drive 'u-Commerce'; EMC Drives Down Cost of Ownership, Supports Payment Processing Network to 10,000 Transactions Per Second.

Business/Technology Editors

HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2001

It was 9:30 p.m. and Marge Steinhardt had just purchased a bottle of Australian Chardonnay using nothing more than her laptop and Visa card. Visa U.S.A., which handles half of all e-commerce transactions, is banking on the fact that Marge -- and millions like her -- will shop more heavily through online retailers using any number of electronic devices. Visa's assumption proved to be correct last holiday season - Visa cardholders spent approximately $3 billion on the Internet between November 24 and December 25, nearly double the prior year's total.

Visa refers to this as "u-Commerce," or universal commerce. The idea is to enable consumers to conduct commerce at any time, anywhere and by any means. Powering Visa's u-Commerce vision is its payment processing network, VisaNet, which relies on an EMC E-Infostructure to manage reliably and efficiently the massive amounts of information it generates.

Recently, Visa announced its Direct Exchange initiative, which expanded and modernized VisaNet, making it the world's largest private financial payments network using Internet technologies in a secure environment. The EMC-enabled network now enables Visa to process up to 10,000 transactions per second, which is more than double today's volume.

"Consumers want payment to be quick, secure and reliable...however they choose to pay," said Sara Garrison, Senior Vice President, Technology Development, Visa U.S.A. "Our EMC E-Infostructure addresses all of these needs by providing Visa real-time, 24x7 access to all of our e-business data. EMC's powerful storage systems, Professional Services consultants and advanced software have allowed us to continually fine-tune and adapt our infrastructure to scale to volumes never achieved before. Moreover, EMC's continued investment in R&D ensures our infrastructure can handle future capacity enhancements."

Garrison also underscored the cost-related benefits of EMC shared information storage. EMC's highly efficient and centralized approach of managing constantly changing information drives down the total cost of ownership of our storage infrastructure."

"EMC's interoperability with other platforms and support of open technology, such as the Internet Protocol (IP), mesh well with our philosophy of open standards," said Garrison. "The openness of the Direct Exchange infrastructure helps us provide greatly enriched transaction data to banks and merchants, allowing them to provide better customer service with all of the security and convenience expected from the Visa brand. Increased information sharing with our business partners also has strengthened our capabilities to ensure highly secure online transactions for our customers."

Jack Garrahan, EMC's Vice President of Global Marketing, said, "Visa's selection of EMC as the information core of the world's largest private financial payments network underscores why leaders choose EMC for their infrastructure deployments. It's about EMC's deep commitment and focus, ensuring a rapid stream of product advancements. It's about the industry's most responsive customer service operation. And it's about exceptional products that accelerate companies to new levels."

Visa, based in San Francisco, Calif., is safeguarding its Direct Exchange data on an EMC Enterprise Storage Network (ESN) comprising EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems located in Visa's East and West Coast data centers and a separate testing facility. Using EMC's Connectrix fibre-channel switches, the EMC Symmetrix systems funnel information to Sun Solaris servers, Oracle databases and Cisco Systems routing technologies. Visa also has implemented EMC TimeFinder, EMC ControlCenter and EMC PowerPath to increase storage performance, availability and management. In addition to Direct Exchange, Visa U.S.A. has standardized its traditional payments and clearing network on EMC Enterprise Storage systems, comprising 85 terabytes of EMC Symmetrix systems and EMC CLARiiON systems.

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services, providing the information infrastructure for a connected world. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

Visa is the world's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumer and merchant customers with the best way to pay and be paid. More than 14,000 U.S. financial institutions rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate over $765 billion in annual transaction volume -- including more than half of all Internet payments -- with virtually 100 percent reliability. U.S. consumers carry more than 345 million Visa-branded smart, credit, commercial, stored value and check cards, accepted at approximately 21 million locations worldwide. Visa has long led the industry in developing payment security standards, and has been named the most trusted payment brand online. Visa's people, partnerships, brand and payment technology are helping to create universal commerce -- the ability to safely conduct transactions anytime, anywhere and by any device. Please visit www.visa.com for additional information.

EMC2, EMC, Symmetrix and CLARiiON are registered trademarks and EMC Enterprise Storage, EMC Enterprise Storage Network, E-Infostructure, Connectrix, ControlCenter, TimeFinder and PowerPath are trademarks of EMC Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.