GOVERNMENT

Today Neterion, Inc. (formerly S2io, Inc.), the industry leader in the emerging 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter market, announced that it has signed a mutually exclusive agreement with Hitachi High-Technologies (HHT), the leading Japanese distributor of technology-based products in the market, in order to meet the growing demand for servers and storage devices equipped with 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities. HHT is a global company with 22 offices in Japan and 77 offices outside of Japan in twenty-four countries. HHT will lead the customer adoption of Neterion products by targeting server/storage OEMs, developing distribution channels and creating a customer support network. In return, HHT will have exclusive rights to market Neterion products in Japan. “In order to be successful in today’s markets, you have to compete on a global basis. This agreement with HHT, who has a long and established presence in Japan, is our first step in meeting that goal,” said Dave Zabrowski, President and CEO of Neterion. “HHT has the relationships, technical capabilities and customer support infrastructure in place that will enable us to serve the leading server/storage OEMs in Japan.” The agreement between HHT and Neterion was facilitated with the help of JAFCO Ventures, a venture capital firm that led Neterion’s last round of financing. “We are very pleased to have aided in the process of developing a partnership between HHT and Neterion,” said Sunny Sugaya, the General Partner at JAFCO that heads the group’s Japan-focused business development efforts. “HHT is one of Japan’s most prominent distributors, and we believe they are an excellent fit for Neterion’s industry-leading products. We are very excited about the future of this relationship.” Neterion and Hitachi High-Technologies Sign Distribution Agreement, p.2 of 3. Japan features the world’s largest vendors outside the U.S. As a technology leader, Japan is on a fast track deployment of fiber to the home for broadband Internet access. These high-speed networks will require advanced server and storage products that can leverage Neterion’s 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities. With prices rapidly declining, all major switch makers are manufacturing products with 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities and the server/storage technology is rapidly moving from high performance computing labs into enterprise data centers. Driving this movement is the fact that many companies are seeing the amount of data they process double every six months. Neterion has already announced customer contracts with U.S. server vendors including Silicon Graphics, Cray and Hewlett-Packard. Sun Microsystems has also entered into an agreement with Neterion to develop the next generation of 10 Gigabit Ethernet products for server/storage connectivity. “ Neterion is a leader in 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology in the U.S. and we are very pleased that Japan and HHT were chosen for their first international expansion,” stated Noriyuki Hioki, General Manager, IT Systems Department, Information Systems Division of Hitachi High-Technologies. “The Xframe adapters are the leading edge type of technology products that we have been seeking for quite some time.” “The Xframe products, with their critical IPv6 support, will be in demand for those customers seeking standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet solutions for enterprise data centers and in high performance computing environments.” Mr. Hioki added that Neterion’s products and technology will provide HHT with near term market entry opportunities in the server/storage area as well as in unified networking fabric. Support for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is mandated in Asian markets. Aside from providing an almost infinite number of IP addresses, as opposed to the current IPv4, IPv6 was developed with security as a leading feature. It allows devices to securely authenticate remote nodes and encrypt communication with them. These security features enable secure, end-to-end communications between almost any types of device. IPv6 support is designed into all Xframe products.