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Hammerhead Systems to Accelerate European Support Plans as Part of Layer 2.5 Aggregation Solution Deployment in North America and Europe Discussions Underway for Global Partner to Support European Deployments Garmisch, Germany – February 28, 2006 – Hammerhead Systems, Inc., the market leader in Layer 2.5 Aggregation solutions, today announced its intention to accelerate European expansion plans to support customers and trials. The company is in early discussions with potential partners to support Hammerhead customers who deploy its HSX 6000 Layer 2.5 aggregation switch in Europe and in North America, and to support trials at large European carriers. Neither the North American customers nor the European trials have been disclosed. Hammerhead currently has a North American partnership with Fujitsu Network Communications. “Hammerhead validated its core business strategy focused on carriers offering mission critical business services to enterprises around the world with two large customer wins including an IP MPLS Multi-service Edge Aggregation application and a Business Ethernet Aggregation application,” said Rob Keil, Hammerhead Systems Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development. “As a result of these large international network wins, we are accelerating our plans to secure European support for global customers and European trials. The carrier market has shown significant demand for Hammerhead’s HSX 6000 with its innovative network processor architecture, including Bandwidth Pooling (patent pending), 1:N Redundancy, and technology leadership in MPLS Pseudowires and QoS. Hammerhead’s time-to-market lead offers carriers real, flexible, and cost-effective solutions to support their network expansions today”. In addition to the two existing customers, Hammerhead is in lab trials with other carriers for a variety of applications. In a typical scenario, Hammerhead’s HSX 6000 takes physical handoffs from SDH/SONET transport and/or cross-connect equipment, and performs aggregation, grooming, switching, and interworking functions on the data traffic while feeding Gigabit Ethernet to routers. In other cases, the HSX 6000 is a gateway between ATM and MPLS networks validating Hammerhead’s value in network interworking applications. The HSX 6000 offers extensive support for Ethernet (native GigE and EoS) as well as legacy services (FR, ATM, PPP/HDLC, TDM). The unique Dual Control Plane architecture gives carriers the flexibility to have a single edge platform connected simultaneously to and providing interworking between their MPLS and ATM networks. The HSX 6000 uses a patent-pending Bandwidth Pooling architecture to virtualize key switch resources and eliminate stranded capacity. Service Agile Ports enable flexible software provisioning of any physical port for any service or speed. The Service Interworking Engine allows carriers to introduce new Ethernet-based services on their existing Frame Relay and ATM networks. The HSX 6000 Service Interworking capability is bi-directional, any-to-any, control plane agnostic, and highly scalable. The HSX 6000 provides the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO); leadership in QoS; leadership in MPLS Pseudowire capabilities; and is first-to-market with Pegador SOA for northbound XML/SOAP interfaces to a carrier’s OSS. A number of the HSX 6000 architectural innovations have been highlighted by customers as key reasons why they selected the HSX 6000 over competitors, including: Bandwidth Pooling; 1:N Redundancy; and in-service upgrades from 30G to 120G switching capacity (full duplex). In January, Hammerhead Systems announced the closing of a $30 million Series C round of funding, led by new investor Silver Creek Ventures and joined by new investor Apex Venture Partners with all existing investors, including Foundation Capital, Mayfield, Enterprise Partners, and Pequot Ventures participating. This new round brings the total equity raised by Hammerhead Systems to $80 million. The funds will be used for working capital to expand sales, marketing and customer support internationally and in North America, as well as the acceleration of new product development in response to customer demand, and establishing volume manufacturing. About Hammerhead Systems |
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