Microsoft Accelerates Commitment to e-Commerce with Opening of State-of-the-Art Working Lab

Austin, Texas, October 12, 2000 — Illustrating the company’s ongoing commitment to provide a comprehensive range of solutions for their e-commerce customers, Microsoft is set to open its second technology center in Austin on October 12. The Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) — Austin is unique in combining an experienced team of consultants, a powerful development environment and a stellar group of industry partners lead by Dell, one of the world’s most successful e-businesses with more than $50 million per day in online sales, to serve the needs of its dot com customers.

The MTC — Austin is a 12,000-square foot development powerhouse with individual labs that boast a hardware rich setting configured to match each customer’s deployment environment. Incorporating advanced tools from Microsoft, Dell and other industry partners, customers can engage in a variety of service offerings including scalability and testing, transaction cost analysis, security assessments and hardware and software compatibility. Customers can also explore the benefits of new and developing Microsoft technologies. With access to a permanent consulting team, the new facility brings together the right mix of skills and resources to help customers develop, test and fine-tune their online capabilities in order to move them quickly to market.

“We wanted to match our proven e-commerce solutions with the escalating needs of today’s dot com community,”
said Peter Boit, vice president, Microsoft E-Commerce Solutions Group.
“As a booming market for e-businesses, Austin is an ideal location to establish this resource.”

Adds Bob Laskey, managing consultant, Microsoft E-Commerce Practice,
“The Microsoft Technology Centers offer customers wishing to capitalize on cornerstone Microsoft.NET technologies the service, infrastructure and development environment to accelerate their projects and reduce their risk.”

Dell joins Microsoft to power the MTC-Austin with extensive computing resources, including several high-end PowerEdge™ servers, PowerApp™ Web appliance servers, PowerVault™ storage systems, and Precision™
workstations.

“This center is another milestone in the collaboration between Microsoft and Dell to bring e-commerce solutions to the marketplace,”
said Gene Austin, vice president for worldwide marketing, Dell Enterprise Systems Group.
“This working lab will help customers develop and test next-generation e-commerce technologies and further demonstrate the value of Windows platforms and industry-standard systems for powering e-business.”

Joining forces with Microsoft and Dell to provide a complete range of tools and services for the MTC are: APC Corp., BMC Software, CyberSource, EMC Corp., Epicenter Inc., FG SQUARED, Giganet Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Interwoven Inc, Rainbow Technologies and Symantec Corp.

Operational since August 21, the Austin facility has already supported multiple customers with site development and launch preparation. eCertain, an Austin-based Internet company, has utilized the MTC to fine-tune multiple components of their site.


Microsoft is a true partner.
As we roll out eCertain’s Digital Certainty service, it’s essential to remain focused on performance, scalability and the user experience,”
said Neil Iscoe, CEO, eCertain.
“The Microsoft Technology Center, as well as the ‘can do’ attitude of their talented staff, has greatly contributed to our ability to provide the confidentiality, integrity and accountability that our customers require.”

In addition to the MTC – Austin, a center was recently opened in Boston. Microsoft also plans to launch locations in Toronto, Chicago and Silicon Valley during the next six months.

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About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Media Contact:

Kendra Berke
Golin/Harris International
(312) 729-4342
(312) 218-5334 (cellular)
[email protected]

For additional information about the Austin Microsoft Technology Center, please contact Bob Laskey at [email protected] or (512) 795-5354. For information about the other MTCs, please email [email protected] .

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