Unisys and Key Partners Help Customers Maximize IT Value with Enterprise Blueprint for Microsoft Systems Architecture.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 2003

Addressing the Needs of Enterprise Windows Users -- the IT Industry's Most Rapidly Growing Market Segment -- the Enterprise Blueprint for MSA Helps Cut Expense, Improve IT Flexibility and Reduce Risk

Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) and its partners Brocade, EMC, Emulex, Microsoft, Nortel Networks and StorageTek today announced the launch of the Enterprise Blueprint for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA). The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA delivers technical roadmaps, best practices, services, support and technologies that bring mainframe-class performance and availability to a Windows-based infrastructure.

Many organizations began their investment in Windows technologies with small departmental deployments that have since evolved to address enterprise-wide requirements. At the same time, new mission-critical applications are increasingly being deployed on Windows rather than Unix systems. Indeed, investment in Microsoft-based infrastructure is the most rapidly growing part of many organizations' IT investments. According to IDC's Worldwide Server Forecast, growth in customer revenue for midrange Windows-based servers will be 43.5 percent, and growth in high-end Windows-based servers will be 91 percent through 2007.

Together, these factors mean that firms are finding it necessary to take a more organized approach to managing and deploying their Windows-based infrastructure to ensure they are maximizing their return on this rapidly expanding investment.

Unisys and Partners Extend Enterprise Attributes of MSA

The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA delivers a complete disaster recovery capability with failover achieved in seconds even when the backup facility is hundreds of kilometers from the primary production site. In addition, the server, storage, network and backup have been designed for consolidation, similar to mainframe environments. One of the resulting benefits is the reduction of the number of servers by as much as 90 percent and far less expense as compared with a typical Windows-based design.

"Unisys and our partners are building on years of experience deploying enterprise data centers and have focused global resources on bringing the advantages of that experience to Microsoft-based environments," said Pete Samson, vice president, Systems and Technology, Unisys.

After executing more than 1,000 test cases audited by independent consultants, the Enterprise Blueprint has achieved MSA certification. MSA defines the ideal infrastructure for Microsoft-based applications. This initiative represents the cumulative best practices developed in thousands of customer engagements by well-known, industry leaders.

"The Enterprise Blueprint for Microsoft Systems Architecture available from Unisys and its partners is a direct answer to our collective customers' requests for prescriptive, yet flexible, fully tested guides for quickly deploying and repurposing the enterprise datacenter," said Jim Hebert, general manager, Windows Server Product Management Group, Microsoft Corp. "This one will be particularly helpful to enterprises who are intent on increasing the operational efficiency of their IT, including consolidation of disparate server systems and migration from Windows NT4 Server."

Delivering Real-World Benefits to Customers

The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA is being applied today to simplify systems administration and provide secure disaster recovery backup at Thomson Financial, a New York-based division of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE:TOC), and leading provider of information and technology solutions to the global financial community.

"Thomson Financial's customers have among the most intense performance and reliability demands in any industry," said Jeremy Lehman, senior vice president, head of technology, Thomson Financial Investment Management Group. "We have partnered with Unisys using their Enterprise Blueprint for MSA. The Unisys Enterprise Blueprint for MSA brings together best practices defined by Microsoft with the proven implementation experience of Unisys and their partners. Using MSA and the Unisys design allows Thomson to reduce time, risk and cost to deploy mission critical applications in a Microsoft standardized infrastructure."

Broad Partner Participation

The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA partners collaborated in providing resources and testing to deliver a wide range of benefits to their customers.

-- Brocade - Brocade supported the partner effort by providing

the storage area networking (SAN) infrastructure with SilkWorm 

12000 Directors and technical support. The combined resources

in the Enterprise Blueprint for MSA offer customers with

Brocade-based SANs a complete guide to help reduce cost and

risk, speed deployment, and improve the manageability and

security of their Windows environments.

-- EMC - EMC's automated networked storage solutions - including

Symmetrix(R) and CLARiiON(R) platforms with market leading

replication and management software - enabled superior

business continuity for this MSA blueprint. Experience,

expertise, and verified methodologies offered by EMC lowered

risk and disruption to operations by protecting and managing

Windows and Exchange information. Visit: www.emc.com

-- Emulex - As the world's largest supplier and developer of

storage networking host bus adapters (HBAs), Emulex provides

ASIC, firmware and software technologies spanning both Fibre

Channel and IP networking protocols. Emulex high-performance,

scalable, HBAs complement the MSA through increasing

flexibility and reducing cost of ownership.

-- Microsoft - Microsoft developed the MSA program specifically

as a true partner collaboration program whereby industry

partners not only contribute to the development of MSA, but

they also are capable of taking and extending MSA. These

extensions highlight key partner technology areas and add real

value above and beyond the MSA delivered by Microsoft. The

Enterprise Blueprint for MSA is an example of this added value 

that addresses the pressing need companies are facing for

disaster recovery solutions.

-- Nortel Networks - Nortel Networks provides key components of

the infrastructure portion of the MSA Enterprise Blueprint.

Nortel Networks data products included in the Enterprise

Blueprint for MSA are routing and optical multi-service

products, datacenter traffic management platforms and security

products, including the company's firewall and Virtual Private

Networking platforms. The infrastructure solution is designed

to enable a highly available, redundant, secure solution that

provides high performance and scalability.

-- StorageTek - StorageTek(R) (Storage Technology Corporation,

NYSE:STK) is a premier provider of enterprise storage

solutions. A key component of the Enterprise Blueprint for

MSA, StorageTek provides critical data protection for

enterprises worldwide. MSA complements StorageTek's strategy,

which provides customers with the full breadth of storage

technologies to manage information efficiently and

cost-effectively. Visit www.storagetek.com.

-- Unisys - The Windows- and Intel-based Unisys ES7000 server,

capable of scaling from 4 to 32 processors, serves as the

centerpiece for Enterprise Blueprint solutions. Providing

complete services and support for the Enterprise Blueprint for

MSA, Unisys serves as the single point of contact for

customers to provide an integrated solution.

Supports the Unisys Business Blueprinting Initiative

The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA initiative complements Unisys Business Blueprinting, which aligns IT solutions with evolving business processes. Announced in June of this year, Unisys Business Blueprinting is a comprehensive consulting, development and delivery strategy, Unisys Business Blueprinting builds digital models that link business processes to the software and systems that support them. The Enterprise Blueprint for MSA provides a key part of the underlying infrastructure level for Business Blueprinting where Microsoft technology is being deployed.

For more information on the Unisys MSA program, visit unisys.com/datacenter/msa.

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. Our people combine expertise in systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure, server technology and consulting with precision thinking and relentless execution to help clients, in more than 100 countries, quickly and efficiently achieve competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

RELEASE NO.: 0929/8335 http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/news_a_events/09298335.htm

Unisys and ClearPath are registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Nortel Networks is a trademark of Nortel Networks.

Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between Nortel Networks and any other party.