TALK Talkspace Inc

Talk America Dials Up Enterprise Grid Computing With Oracle(R) Communications Provider Migrates to Oracle 10g REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Seeking a strong information technology (IT) foundation to support its business, Talk America (NASDAQ:TALK) has deployed an enterprise grid computing infrastructure with Oracle(R) (NASDAQ:ORCL) 10g software at its core. Talk America, a provider of phone service and high speed Internet access, is using Oracle Application Server 10g, Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g and Oracle Real Application Clusters 10g to develop a highly available, scalable and secure infrastructure. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020718/ORCLLOGO ) After a thorough evaluation of data management and middle-tier infrastructure software from Oracle and others, Talk America decided to migrate to Oracle 10g. Oracle offers the only complete, integrated software stack-Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g-engineered to work together to enable grid computing. "We were impressed by the integrated set of offerings," said Timothy Leonard, CIO, Talk America. "There is no need to patch things together with Oracle 10g -- which was very appealing to us." Need for Increased Performance Steers Talk America to Oracle 10g, Grid Talk America is using Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Real Application Clusters 10g to help it increase the reliability of its business critical applications such as lead management, order processing, provisioning and customer billing. Oracle's database clustering software enables Talk America to run their applications and to query large volumes of information more efficiently with virtually no interruption of service. "In the past, the database has been a single point of failure," said Leonard. "So we looked at the reliability and scalability offered by Oracle 10g and grid computing, and established that it fits our business strategy." Central to the company's technology infrastructure is Oracle Application Server 10g on Linux. Talk America will utilize Oracle Application Server 10g's J2EE capabilities to build and deploy custom Java applications in a grid environment. The migration to Oracle Application Server 10g is currently underway and is expected to be complete in early 2005. Once fully deployed, Oracle's comprehensive application platform suite will work with Oracle Database 10g to provide unparalleled performance, reliability and scalability for deploying Java-based applications. Oracle 10g enables Talk America to deploy an enterprise grid computing infrastructure to address its most significant business priorities. Talk America's enterprise grid is expected to help it improve its application service levels, better manage its systems, and reduce the cost of its IT systems. "Moving to a grid computing infrastructure using Oracle 10g software gives IT organizations greater flexibility and better alignment with business priorities," said Robert Shimp, vice president of Technology Marketing, Oracle Corporation. "Grid computing can also improve reliability and it offers the ability to scale out system performance as needed over time." Oracle 10g Manageability Eases Demands on Administrators In addition to addressing IT issues such as availability and scalability with Oracle, Talk America is positioned to reduce the burden of administering and monitoring its database and middleware systems. The Grid Control feature of Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g offers advanced application and service level monitoring, performance management and provisioning for Oracle environments. The Automatic Storage Management feature of Oracle Database 10g reduces the complexity associated with managing data and disks. The ease of management of Oracle 10g, in conjunction with functionality of Oracle Grid Control, allows Talk America administrators to reduce time-consuming, repetitive administrative tasks, enabling them to concentrate on longer-term strategic issues over short-term fire drills. About Talk America Talk America is a leading competitive communications provider that offers phone services and high speed Internet access to both residential and business customers. Talk America delivers value in the form of savings, simplicity and quality service to its customers through its leading- edge network and award-winning back office. For further information, visit us online at: http://www.talkamerica.com/ . About Oracle Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com/ . Trademarks Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Talk America is a registered trademark of Talk America. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020718/ORCLLOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Oracle Corporation CONTACT: Eloy Ontiveros of Oracle Corporation, +1-650-607-6458, or ; or Marcie Hatch of Zeno Group, +1-415-369-8120, or , for Oracle Web site: http://www.talkamerica.com/ Web site: http://www.oracle.com/

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