Sand Technology Brings Architectural Break-Through to Market With Nucleus MPSO.

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1999--

(NASDAQ:SNDT)

Unprecedented Combination of Speed, Scalability, Efficiency,

and Cost Effectiveness for CRM, DSS, ERP, and BI Applications

Sand Technology Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDT) today announced a major architectural enhancement to the award-winning Nucleus Exploration product suite: the Nucleus Massively Parallel Server Option (MPSO).

Nucleus Octopus, the central component and cornerstone of the MPSO, (which also includes the forthcoming Nucleus Parallel Domain Loader) is now available. Octopus enables the speed and flexibility of Nucleus Exploration Mart and Nucleus Prototype Mart to be scaled to accommodate powerful multi-server computing environments, and delivers an unprecedented level of database availability and service to enterprise decision support users.

The functionality of Nucleus Octopus is aimed specifically at tackling one of the most important problems within today's corporate DSS, CRM, ERP and BI systems. By enabling Nucleus' Virtual Database (VDB(TM)) capability, Octopus allows organizations to respond quickly and effectively to workload shifts, while managing query processing so as to provide the timely and complex decision support associated with CRM, DSS, and ERP. With Octopus, users can now set up or rearrange virtual Nucleus servers over multiple physical nodes in a matter of minutes rather than hours or days, whether the environment is MPP, SMP, clustered, or networked systems. Delivering an unprecedented combination of speed, scalability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness, Octopus and Nucleus Virtual Database make up the industry's first and only 'just-in-time' resource capability for Business Intelligence. By defining their desired end user access environment, organizations can now transparently assign the appropriate level of processing power and responsiveness to each business user and query type.

"Unburdened by the need to develop a multi-personality (e.g., OLTP, Query) DBMS platform, Sand has the opportunity to deliver unique data management technology for Business Intelligence applications," said Douglas Lynn, Program Director, Meta Group. "The MPSO architecture, and Octopus functionality, is positioned to extend Nucleus' small footprint design into a scalable architecture for companies challenged with accommodating the diverse types of business users, data, and applications (e.g., CRM), while being constrained by technical, computing, and budgetary limitations."

A large number of Octopus-controlled Nucleus database engines can be grouped into classes that are configured to handle specific processing requirements, so that the execution of long-running queries do not delay response to short-running ones. Updates can be made without compromising database accessibility, and then made available to all users on the system. In this way, Octopus provides a simple and flexible means of guaranteeing specified levels of service to different sectors of the end-user community. Octopus furthermore collects and stores detailed information about server activity, user sessions, and query execution, and also provides the option to cancel execution of 'runaway queries' from merchant databases.

"The Octopus functionality within the new Nucleus MPSO architecture delivers a much needed set of capabilities for organizations trying to implement, manage, control, and maximize any DSS, CRM, ERP, or BI system," said Kevin M. Horigan, Executive Vice-President at Sand. "With the ability to scale from a single-processor Windows NT server to multiple collections of the largest SMP and MPP Unix-based systems, Octopus provides incredible granularity for Business Intelligence without altering the user's view of the system."

About Sand Technology

Sand Technology Systems International Inc. provides high performance, scalable software solutions for data mining, data marts, data warehouses and online analytical processing (OLAP). Sand's Nucleus product suite brings patented technology to the business user allowing for more timely and accurate decision processing within the disconnected client, desktop, workgroup, departmental and enterprise computing environments. Supporting industries and vertical markets like Retail, Finance, Healthcare, Transportation, Telecommunication, Manufacturing, Government and Insurance Nucleus is used for corporate initiatives such as customer relationship management, risk analysis and management, product trend and profitability analysis, fraud detection, emerging markets, competitive analysis and quality control. Sand has commercial relationships with IBM, Oracle, Compaq Computer Corporation, Microsoft, SAIC, GE, Brio Technology, and Information Builders Inc. Sand Technology can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.sandtechnology.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: All Rights Reserved. Nucleus, Nucleus Server and N-Vector are registered trademarks and Nucleus Exploration Mart, Nucleus Exploration Warehouse, Nucleus Virtual Database (VDB), Nucleus Powered! and Nucleus E! are trademarks of Sand Technology Systems International Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.