FAA Virtualizes Critical International Communication Application with Stratus

MAYNARD, Mass., May 12 -- The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City is building a virtual computing environment for its operations-critical international message switching system, and is purchasing the virtualization software, fault-tolerant hardware platform, professional services, and 5-year customer support contract from Stratus Technologies, Inc., the company announced today. The deal is valued at approximately $860,000.

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This project is part of a long-term technology investment initiative, and the first virtualization project launched in the agency's technical center. The project will start with two guest operating systems running on VMware ESX software, data center edition. The first guest operating system will run a message switching application for sending flight plans, weather information, and other messages to international airports from FAA control centers in Salt Lake City and Atlanta. The second will run a Windows application being used as a generic proxy server. Two Stratus(R) ftServer(R) 6210 fault-tolerant servers and Stratus ftScalable storage arrays will be located in Atlantic City, with another server located in each of the two control centers. The application is planned to go live this summer.

"There is a great deal of industry discussion underway about whether virtualization technology has matured sufficiently to be used for mission-critical applications," said Allan Jennings, Stratus senior vice president, product and solution development. "This FAA application and others Stratus is engaged with clearly demonstrate that, with the proper combination of fault-tolerant hardware, software, and customer support, virtualization deserves consideration throughout the datacenter. It's Stratus' intention to set the availability standard for virtualization technology, as we have for fault-tolerant X86 Windows and Linux infrastructures."

The FAA already runs on Stratus ftServer systems for its message switching NADIN (National Airspace Data Interchange Network) application, which handles flight plans and tracking of all aircraft in U.S. airspace.

Stratus products and services address end-user requirements for business-critical and mission-critical uptime support for Windows and Linux applications, as well as virtualization software:

  --  Continuous availability delivered by Stratus ftServer systems,
      field-proven to provide nearly 99.9999 percent uptime reliability in
      24/7 operation.
  --  High availability delivered by Stratus Avance(TM) software, an
      easy-to-use, cost-effective product delivering 99.99 percent uptime
      (less than one hour of downtime per year on average) using commodity
      x86 servers.
  --  ActiveService(TM) architecture, a unique combination of capabilities
      that enable built-in serviceability, self-monitoring and diagnostics,
      and proactive remote support and troubleshooting by Stratus service
      engineers.


  About Stratus Technologies

Stratus Technologies focuses exclusively on helping its customers keep critical business operations online without interruption. Business continuity requires resiliency and superior availability throughout the IT infrastructure, including virtual environments. Stratus delivers a range of solutions that includes software-based high availability, fault-tolerant servers, availability consulting and assessment, and remote systems management services. Based on its 29 years of expertise in product and services technology for total availability, Stratus is a trusted solutions provider to customers in manufacturing, health care, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries. For more information, visit www.stratus.com.

(C) 2009 Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stratus and ftServer are registered trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. The Stratus Technologies logo, Avance and ActiveService are trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

  Contacts:

  Ed Marshall                          Ken Donoghue
  Beaupre & Co. Public Relations       Stratus Technologies
  603-559-5816                         978-461-7269
  emarshall at beaupre.com                ken.donoghue at stratus.com
  www.beaupre.com                      www.stratus.com