Under the joint product development agreement, Stratus and NEC will cross-license technologies and collaborate closely on the development of future fault-tolerant computer servers. Drawing upon expertise developed over 25 years, Stratus will provide high-availability software that enables continuous server operation. NEC will have primary responsibility for hardware design and for manufacturing a common hardware platform, which Stratus will purchase from NEC. Both companies will provide core-fault-tolerant technology and each company will add its own features and functionality for its unique marketplace requirements, and will sell its own fault-tolerant server brands for Windows and Linux operating environments.

"Our agreements with NEC enable us to increase our focus on high-value, high-availability solutions services for the enterprise, increase investments in fault-tolerant software development, and continue providing industry-leading, fault-tolerant servers to customers and partners," said David J. Laurello, president and CEO, Stratus Technologies. "The same core technology we bring to the product-development alliance is also the foundation of our consulting and managed services to help clients ensure uninterrupted availability of their most important business processes and operations. Stratus' Continuous Processing® technology is the linchpin in both our solutions services strategy and our agreement with NEC."

The partnership will yield servers designed to support business- and mission-critical operations, such as carrier and enterprise telephony services, funds transfer, securities trading, credit card processing, highly regulated manufacturing, E-911 computer-aided dispatch, security, and call centers, to name a few. NEC and Stratus have collaborated on hardware and software engineering projects since 1999, and NEC currently sells Stratus-produced fault-tolerant servers in the U.S. and Japan under the NEC Express brand.