Armonk, N.Y. - July 26, 2005 - IBM today announced the intention to form an industry community around BladeCenter called Blade.org. Companies that have expressed an interest in being founding members in the blade community include Brocade, Cisco, Citrix Systems, IBM, Intel Corporation, Network Appliance, Nortel, Novell and VMware. This community is planned to be a collaborative organization focused on accelerating the expansion of solutions for BladeCenter, a design co-developed by IBM and Intel.

This organization is aimed at spurring development and innovation around blade technology, and will enable BladeCenter ecosystem partners to test and interoperate their products on BladeCenter. This will drive the development of this rapidly-growing community and innovations in Voice over IP, industry specific solutions, security and many other technologies.

IBM has reserved Blade.org as the future Web site for a solution community that will facilitate the expansion of solutions based upon the BladeCenter specifications.

"We expect Blade.org to build on the current wave of momentum around BladeCenter," said Susan Whitney, general manager, xSeries division, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "BladeCenter is the most open blade server platform in the industry and as a new organization Blade.org would help enable the broadest set of customer solutions for their diverse application needs. With the new IBM BladeCenter interoperability program, we are opening even more doors to provide the industry with opportunities to take advantage of the BladeCenter ecosystem."

"Cisco recognized the value of blade servers to our customers early on. With the Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module, the Cisco Topspin InfiniBand Switch Module and Host Channel Adapters, and the Cisco VFrame™ Server Virtualization software, Cisco delivers multiple solutions for blade server customers to receive the benefits of Cisco end-to-end networking," said Kathy Hill, senior vice-president of Ethernet and Wireless Systems Technology Group, Cisco Systems, Inc. "Cisco is pleased to be working with Intel and IBM to deliver industry standard solutions for our customers choosing to deploy blade servers."

"Enabling the enterprise is founded on developing new solutions that simplify companies' infrastructures and allow them to rapidly meet market demands," said Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel's Server Platforms Group. "This community is expected to help further industry collaboration and provide a new opportunity to create innovative solutions."

In addition, Blade.org is intended to assist solution providers in developing blade applications and extending BladeCenter into vertical industry solutions and small and medium businesses.

Other examples of IBM's initiatives to support an open BladeCenter ecosystem include:

More than 260 companies have received the BladeCenter specifications, with more than 350 technology and solution partners participating in the BladeCenter Alliance Program, and many are now delivering products and solutions based on the open specifications.

BladeCenter has been the leading blade server in the industry for seven successive quarters according to IDC. IBM has shipped well in excess of 200,000 blades since market introduction, the first and only vendor to reach that milestone.*

More information about IBM eServer BladeCenter is available at www.ibm.com/eserver/bladecenter.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com. For more information on IBM's on demand strategy, visit http://www.ibm.com/ondemand.

Press Contact:
Tim Willeford
IBM Corporation
(978) 878-3245
twilleford@us.ibm.com