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Central Access Corporation Selects the Cenus Technologies NPX System

Posted on: Friday, 11 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2003--

Cenus Technologies' NPX System Will Enable the First National

Application Service Provider for the Education Industry

Cenus Technologies(TM), an emerging networking company located in Scotts Valley, California announced today a multi-level customer and partner relationship with Central Access Corporation.

Central Access Corporation has selected to purchase the Cenus Technologies Network Path Xcelerator(TM) (NPX(TM)) system for the Central Access headquarters and its data centers as a key part of its strategy to build a national Application Service Provider (ASP) for the educational market.

Central Access and Cenus Technologies have formed a strategic partnership to deploy the Cenus NPX system in district and school sites, as part of a strategy to expand the network edge to the educators and bring services from Central Access and Cenus Technologies directly to the educational systems. The two companies project the initial market to be in excess of 1,000 sites or Points of Presence (POPs), with the intermediate and total national market to be in excess of 3,000 and approximately 100,000 POPs, respectively, representing approximately half a million students, a million parents, teachers and administrators, all growing exponentially. While the terms of the arrangement have not yet been disclosed, upon completion, this initial deployment of the Cenus NPX systems would be valued in excess of sixty million dollars. Partnership details will outline a long-term agreement between Central Access and Cenus, reflecting how both Companies will be providing services to State educational systems on a multi-year basis.

"We have chosen Cenus Technologies as the exclusive vendor for its application layer networking needs, in large part because the NPX(TM) system contains proprietary technologies which enable functionalities not provided by any other vendor," states Central Access CEO Jim Milam. "The requirements for a national-level ASP servicing the education industry dictated a solution with levels of performance, scalability, extensibility and security not previously available. I see Central Access as now uniquely positioned over every other ASP to be a market leader on a national basis, consolidating what is currently a very highly fragmented market." Eric Johnson, CEO of Cenus Technologies adds that "The Cenus NPX System is the perfect solution given that it is the optimal platform for the distribution and interconnection of clients to applications services and content in a WAN based model."

The partnership between Central Access and Cenus Technologies provides the national educational market with networking services that meet the requirements in the areas of performance, scalability, extensibility and security. This increase in overall network performance enables the sufficiently low latency to create a web-based model for the access and delivery of applications to users. In addition, this resultant network has the NPX(TM) ability to connect hundreds of millions even billions of files, users, and any number of nodes/POPs with increasing performance as the network expands. "Expansion is no longer an issue as the NPX enables the scalability needed to handle a total market of 100,000 POPs and 50,000,000 children, parents, teachers, administrators PLUS local state and federal workers," said Milam "Ultimately, the network solution must also be capable of extending to interface with US Federal Government systems, and State Systems. All of this capacity and capability must be delivered with the highest network security -- complete information about our children online calls for nothing less," said Milam and Eric Johnson, CEO of Cenus, concurred.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has changed Education requirements

The educational market is projected to continue to experience substantial growth as a result of the additional requirements set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. President Bush made education his number one domestic priority when on January 8, 2002, he signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Act is the most sweeping reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) since ESEA was enacted in 1965. It redefines the federal role in K-12 education and proposes to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers. It is based on four basic principles: stronger accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control, expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on teaching methods already proven to work.

Cenus-Sun Partnership

To implement the solution, Central Access and Cenus Technologies have envisioned Sun Microsystems as the hardware platform of choice, and will run the Sun Fire platforms from Sun Microsystems. Sun platforms are the preferred hardware for Cenus because they provide the configuration options which allow the NPX(TM) to deliver the highest performing, most scalable system available, with the most economical model adaptable for the user's needs and budgets.

"The choice of Sun hardware is a key to our success," notes CEO Johnson. "As the Cenus Layer 7 Routing Technology has unprecedented speed of execution and it can deliver the performance and scalability of an ASIC based system on a general purpose processor. Therefore, rather than design a custom ASIC, or an entire custom platform, which would slow development and greatly elevate development costs without providing a significant performance benefits, we chose Sun. By opting to go with an established platform, we were able to be far more flexible in our designs and realize our vision faster. Perhaps of equal importance, we gained Sun, the premier platform in the industry, as a partner. The Sun and Cenus alliance, both industry leaders, is a proven formula for success."

The Sun and Cenus partnership was announced in November of last year.

About Central Access

Central Access Corporation, located in Jackson, Mississippi, has served the public educational system since 1954. Central Access is currently launching its new SAM6i(TM) application, which is the most secure, high performing, web-based, educational application available today, and is the centerpiece offering in a suite of educational applications developed by Central Access including School Fund Accounting, School Personnel, and Student Management. Through its partnership with Cenus, Central Access is now positioned to become the national gateway to the educational market. "Building upon our past ten years of experience and success in student management software development, we believe our new SAM6i(TM) gives schools an enterprise-wide system that's simple to use, carries the most affordable price in the industry, and incorporates all the accountability and reporting components required in No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," Milam said.

About Cenus Technologies

Headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cenus Technologies is the first company to provide route optimization based on true Layer 7 (Application) based information. The Cenus core technology enables enterprises, carriers, and service providers to optimize their networks without the need to re-architect and without disrupting existing network routers, servers and other equipment and technologies. Privately held, the company is fully funded from private investors. Contact Cenus at ir@cenus.com or visit our website at www.cenus.com for more information.

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