SAN JOSE, Calif., May 7, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Announced today by ONI Systems Corp. (Nasdaq:ONIS), the University of Miami has completed the initial integration of the ONLINE2500 optical edge service platform into its network to connect their campus and support critical Web-based applications, including medical and earth science research. The new network is expected to provide the University with significant savings in operational and maintenance cost.
A Q1 '02 customer, the University has live traffic on the network today, which is generated by their School of Medicine and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The Medical School, located on the campus in downtown Miami, adjoins the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in downtown Miami, while the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is located at their waterfront campus on Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay and operates a remote earth satellite collection facility in South Miami-Dade County. The ONI network is the first step in an on-going infrastructure program for expanding the University's network, preparing themselves for growth of voice and data traffic.
"All of our doctors' appointments, our medical records, and our science research are shared through Web-based applications," said Dr. M. Lewis Temares, vice president for Information Technology and dean of the College of Engineering. "Access to the Web is extremely important for us. With this in mind, we selected ONI. They understood what we needed today -- offering us the perfect technology solution to handle our needs now, and they outfitted us with a customer-service plan, something we cannot go without in this 24x7 business. Their product offering and service and support were their winning attributes."
"High-speed connectivity to NASA and other satellite operators is a critical underpinning for the University's earth remote sensing science research," said Dr. Otis Brown, dean of the Rosenstiel School. "The ONI infrastructure ties together our external Internet 2 partners with the distributed satellite data collection and analysis facilities on three University of Miami campuses in a seamless way and facilitates collaboration."
The latest member of the ONLINE(tm) transport family, the ONLINE2500 is being utilized by the University to connect their PBX systems throughout the campuses, consolidating the connections and routing of calls on their telecom backbone. In addition, the ONLINE2500 transports and manages their Gigabit Ethernet traffic, and is being utilized to distribute SAN applications and provide protected data connections for their Web-based applications.
Stewart Seruya, chief networking officer for the University of Miami, added, "The ONLINE2500 fulfills all our needs and wants today. However, we were even more comfortable going with the ONLINE2500, knowing that we have the option to move to the ONLINE7000 or ONLINE9000 transport platforms for our main backbone, while continuing to use the ONLINE2500s in sub-areas."
Bob Jandro, executive vice president of Global Sales and Services at ONI Systems, added, "The University's network model aggressively takes advantage of today's enterprise-ready optical solutions. They are on the leading edge of a new trend, with enterprises deploying what were once considered 'carrier exclusive' systems. Where the University of Miami leads, we expect others will soon follow."
The University of Miami is the largest, most comprehensive private research University in the Southeastern United States with a well-earned reputation for academic excellence. Approximately, 13,500 undergraduate and graduate students from every state and more than 140 nations around the world attend the University of Miami.
About ONI Systems
ONI Systems (Nasdaq:ONIS) develops, markets and sells optical networking equipment specifically designed to address bandwidth and service limitations of regional and metropolitan networks. Our products allow communication service providers to rapidly build high-capacity networks that are flexible, scalable and able to support multiple services on a single platform. ONI's headquarters is located at 5965 Silver Creek Valley Road, San Jose, CA 95138. For additional information about ONI and its products, visit the company Web site at www.oni.com.
ONI Systems, ONI, the ONI logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of ONI Systems Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our limited operating history which makes forecasting our future revenue and operating results difficult, unfavorable economic and market conditions which could cause our existing and potential customers to delay or forgo purchases of our products, risks associated with our proposed merger with CIENA Corporation, our ability to develop and to achieve market acceptance of new products, our dependence on a small number of customers and our ability to add additional customers. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in ONI Systems' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including ONI Systems' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and other documents on file with the SEC.