Systems/Enterprise:

ACXIOM CHOOSES JBoss TO SUPPORT GRID INFRASTRUCTURE

JBoss Inc announced that Acxiom Corp has implemented the JBoss Application Server within its Grid computing infrastructure to help support the interactive, real-time processing capabilities of its customer data management solutions.

A $1 billion company, Acxiom blends data, technology, services and consulting to enable many of the largest, most respected companies in the world to build relationships with their customers.

Acxiom is one of the first companies in the world to bring Grid computing into the mainstream and has made the technology the cornerstone of its Customer Information Infrastructure. The company first deployed its Grid in 2001 and has been enhancing and expanding it since that time. The power and flexibility of the system allow its customers to gain faster access to customer information to improve their business and marketing decisions. Acxiom services Fortune 1000 companies in the financial services, insurance, information services, direct marketing, publishing, retail and telecommunications industries.

"Acxiom considers open source technologies whenever possible and worked extensively with JBoss to evaluate its features and test its performance," said Ken Beasley, technical unit leader at Acxiom Corp. "We ultimately selected JBoss for a range of reasons. One of the most important-JBoss has the necessary features and functions, including clustering, to support our interactive Grid capabilities at a reasonable price/performance level. Additionally, because JBoss is an open source product, it provides us with a great deal of flexibility when it comes to deploying it in our Grid-based infrastructure. Finally, JBoss' J2EE compliance helped ensure fast porting of our existing applications and interoperability with other technologies."

Bob Bickel, vice president of strategy and development, JBoss Inc, said, "Acxiom exemplifies the type of company adopting JBoss today. They're actively evaluating technology options and continuously making improvements to their systems in an effort to provide stand-out products and services to their own customers. By pioneering the use of Grid computing outside of labs and academia, Acxiom can provide better, more comprehensive information to its customers, and does so faster than any other company in its industry. JBoss is gratified that Acxiom selected the JBoss Application Server for use in its Grid computing environment."