IDenticard Authorized as Reseller of NEC Fault-Tolerant Server

Lancaster, PA (June 6, 2002) -- IDenticard, a leading producer of security identification and access control systems, has been named an authorized reseller of NEC Solutions, Inc. fault-tolerant servers -- the NEC Express5800/ft series. When interfaced with IDentiPASS, -- IDenticard's premier access security system -- NEC's fault-tolerant servers provide users with powerful continuous availability security technology.

"This innovative combination means no more downtime, data loss or data corruption in the event of a hardware failure or maintenance servicing", said Aaron Henderson, IDenticard's product manager of access control. The Express5800/ft series is rigorously designed to operate continuously with no performance degradation, regardless of hardware problems. "NEC's redundant hardware never allows the system to go down completely", he explained. "If one of the systems fails for any reason, there's no interruption in processing and data is saved within one of the redundant systems".

Until recently, if network managers wanted to ensure high availability, they relied on clustering -- linking several servers together into cluster systems that required complex software. Although clustered servers provide hardware redundancy, system failure can occur, resulting in significant downtime and data loss.

In contrast, the Express5800/ft series, when used with IDentiPASS, provides an advanced security system that continues to operate without data loss or gaps in security during a hardware failure. "This is a perfect example of how NEC's Fault Tolerant Server series brings 'appliance-like' computing to applications that, in the past, could only be deployed with complex clustering technology", said Mike Mitsch, Director of Enterprise Server Products for NEC Computers. The Express5800/ft server's capability is made possible by fully redundant major hardware components and software that operate the same commands simultaneously. If a major hardware component fails, the fault subsystem module is automatically identified and isolated and its redundant component will keep processing information while the user experiences no application downtime or change in performance.

NEC's fault-tolerant servers differ from cluster systems and standard servers in other significant ways as well. The Express 5800/ft requires less than five minutes of downtime per year, including software upgrades and maintenance time. (Typical clustered servers can experience outages of 24 hours a year or more and require highly trained teams of service technicians to maintain operation.) The Express5800/ft series also reduces the total cost of ownership by eliminating the administrative, software licensing and service costs typically associated with clusters. This system is uniquely designed for easy implementation and supports standard Microsoft Windows applications. This innovative system may be combined with IDenticard's variety of traditional card reader technologies or biometric identification.

Designed as a true fault-tolerant system, Express5800/ft features the following:

• Industry-standard hardware
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating system
• Redundant subsystems are interconnected for lockstep operation, along with SNMP-based management tools
• All redundant components are packaged into modular subsystems: CPU module, I/O module, hard-disk array and power supply.