ARMONK, N.Y., and RICHARDSON, Texas -- IBM and tekVizion(TM) PVS, Inc., the new standard for systems integration, announced today that IBM has signed an agreement to become a Premier Tenant in tekVizion Labs(TM), the first lab of its kind to offer third-party certification and testing for voice over IP (VoIP) products and services.

"Premier Tenants" are vendors who have designated tekVizion Labs as an authorized test facility. Premier Tenants provide their product(s) to tekVizion Labs to be used in certification testing performed by tekVizion Labs and/or to make them available for remote and/or solution testing. Premier Tenant status significantly enhances the vendor's test capacity by turning tekVizion Labs into an extension of the vendor's own test facilities. Premier Tenant status also speeds up test turnaround time and provides priority interoperability testing.

IBM will provide tekVizion Labs with the IBM BladeCenter(TM) and IBM BladeCenter T. The IBM BladeServer family for telecommunications is a group of COTS platforms with the computing power needed to help telecommunications service providers lower the costs of servers in the network while increasing the revenues they generate. Through BladeCenter's unparalleled support for highly diverse wireline/wireless networking as well as for enterprise applications, service providers can consolidate application, service and control planes on a single platform. The IBM BladeCenter(TM) T extends the value of BladeCenter by providing a platform on which IBM Business Partners and Service Providers (SPs) can build their IP-based, next- generation networks. This high-performance, highly dense, scalable, industry- standard computing platform is designed to help SPs accelerate revenue generation, reduce costs and improve customer loyalty.

tekVizion Labs offers several types of testing services involving both remote and on-site testing at tekVizion Labs. Remote testing can be used for pre-certification or ad-hoc test scenarios, whereas formal certification is conducted on-site at tekVizion Labs by tekVizion engineers. Certification can be provided between two products or in a multi-product solution. All lab services are available to both vendors and service providers.

"tekVizion Labs provides a unique and invaluable service to vendors seeking to demonstrate the interoperability and reliability of their Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) products," said Jim Pertzborn, vice president IBM eServer Telecommunications Solutions, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "We've experienced good results from tekVizion's interoperability testing and are delighted to work with them through this cost-effective approach expanding IBM's product testing capabilities."

"IBM is an industry leader in blades and Linux," said Terri Griffin, tekVizion's chief operating officer. "By becoming a Premier Tenant, IBM adds considerably to tekVizion Labs' testing and certification capability. This latest collaborative relationship with IBM is sure to be a momentum builder for the entire industry."

IBM Corp.