MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Azul Systems, the award-winning leader of enterprise server appliances that deliver compute and memory resources as a shared network service, today announced that NBX Inc., an online fantasy sports entertainment service, designed its IT infrastructure from the ground up to take advantage of Azul's ability to deliver a highly reliable and scalable platform for Java applications. With the massive scalability and flexibility of the Azul Compute Appliance, NBX will be able to sustain the service levels required for the real-time processing of all fantasy betting results and rankings for all its members, even in the face of heavy, unpredictable traffic and the company's rapid growth.

Online business-to-consumer services, such as online gaming, rely on extremely high, real-time transaction processing. It's paramount that it can consistently guarantee high levels of performance, scalability and availability, even when faced with the influx of thousands of concurrent users during peak sports seasons. If a real-time transaction site is slow, players cannot place timely bets, resulting in lost revenue, and more importantly lost users. Azul Compute Appliances are specifically designed to deliver compute and memory resources as a shared network service for transaction-intensive applications, so companies like NBX can rest assured its applications will not pause no matter what the workload or scalability need.

"As the number of NBX players accelerates, the processing demands of our real-time system are enormous. As we manage our strong growth and build our system, we need a more cost effective solution than cannot be achieved with conventional hardware," said Toby Corey, chief executive officer, of NBX. "In our tests with standard hardware, we could not deliver the performance levels that a real-time system of our scale requires without incurring significant capital costs. With Azul, we are able to guarantee service levels even during peak demand that will ensure customer satisfaction. Azul is helping us control costs at all levels while enabling us to scale for the foreseeable future without expensive and risky changes to our infrastructure."

NBX lets members wager on real sports events with real Vegas odds to test their sports knowledge. The bets are placed with points instead of dollars, and winners earn bragging rights, cash prizes, the ability to compete in league tournaments and the first-of-its-kind World Sports Championship tournaments for $10,000 grand prizes and the coveted Wiseguy trophy. NBX delivers near real-time processing of betting results, so winners and rankings, both across the entire system and for each group of friends, are presented as soon as the winner of a sporting event is decided. A recent survey of registered NBX users showed that 82 percent rated the site very good to excellent. Outstanding performance is a major contributing factor to that satisfaction.

"Like many Web 2.0 companies, NBX has discovered it can rely on Azul Compute Appliances to ensure lighting-quick responsiveness despite a rapidly growing subscriber base, while still controlling costs and eliminating server sprawl," said Stephen DeWitt, chief executive officer at Azul Systems. "With the expected exponential growth now common with entertainment services and social networks, NBX can rest easy that it will consistently meet its service levels and be a true champion for outstanding customer satisfaction -- no matter what season."

About NBX Inc.

NBX Inc. (No Boundaries Experience) offers the NBX Fantasy Sportsbook integrated with MyNBX(TM) Social Network and unfiltered sports media shows, providing the ultimate, interactive sports competition to avid sports fans. All NBX offerings are completely free. The NBX Fantasy Sportsbook allows sports fans to "wager" using NBX points, not their hard-earned cash. Players compete for bragging rights, weekly cash and prizes plus a chance to qualify for free fantasy sports tournaments with $10,000 grand prizes. Unfiltered sports media provides unique commentary that cannot be found in the mainstream media.

About Azul Systems

Azul Systems is a global provider of enterprise server appliances that delivers compute and memory resources as a shared network service for transaction-intensive applications, such as those built on the Java(TM) platform. Our family of Azul Compute Appliances enables transparent, massively scalable infrastructure that supports the business priorities of today's most demanding enterprise environments and delivers increased capabilities, capacity and utilization at a fraction of the cost of traditional computing models. More information on Azul Systems can be found at http://www.azulsystems.com/.

Legal Notices

Azul Systems and Azul are registered trademarks, and the Azul arch logo is a trademark of Azul Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All Java based trademarks and their logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. NBX, NBX Fantasy Sportsbook, MyNBX and The World Sports Betting Championships are Trademarks of NBX Inc. Other marks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for identification purposes.

CONTACT: Karen Reynolds of Azul Systems, Inc., +1-650-230-6581, or
karen@azulsystems.com; or Elyce Ventura of Eastwick Communications, +1-650-
480-4054, or elyce@eastwick.com, for Azul Systems; or Kirk Reynolds, VP Public
Relations of NBX, +1-408-592-4955

Web site: http://www.azulsystems.com/