*** For immediate use October 13, 2014

Tokyo, October 13, 2014 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the launch of NEC SDN Partner Space - a new multi-vendor SDN partnership program and innovation portal www.sdnspace.com to enhance the development and adoption of open, best-in-breed SDN-based network solutions.

As of today, one of the biggest challenges for SDN adoption is the lack of compatible network applications to transform the complexity of a traditional data center topology into an SDN-enabled virtual data center, enterprise and campus network.

In response to an increasing demand for a secure and accessible enterprise-grade network applications ecosystem, NEC SDN Partner Space creates a single open location in which developers, along with the controller and switch vendors, can post their SDN applications and solutions. As a long-time, strong supporter of the OpenFlow protocol and OpenDaylight community, NEC is actively pushing forward integration and compatibility between different multivendor solutions.

Through the NEC SDN Partner Space portal, NEC is renewing its commitment to the SDN developers' community by providing state-of-the-art development and marketing tools. By joining NEC SDN Partner Space and completing a partner certification process, virtual network application vendors can access simple guidelines to ensure their solution is compatible with NEC's ProgrammableFlowR Technology.

As part of NEC's commitment to deliver an open environment for further network applications innovation, NEC's ProgrammableFlow Controller provides open interfaces for both northbound and southbound APIs. In order to empower the SDN application development community, NEC SDN Partner Space incorporates a full range of documentation, reference code, API specification, SDK and walkthrough materials to enable an easy and fast adaptation of network applications to the OpenFlow standard.

Major providers, including Dell, HP, Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Radware, Trend Micro, NoviFlow, Centec, Meru Networks, Ixia, Broadcom, Extreme Networks, RedHat, RedCannon, Aria Networks, H-Log, Abiquo and StackOps, have already joined NEC SDN Partner Space, enhancing the SDN ecosystem with state-of-the-art security, virtualization, orchestration, switch and chipsets solutions, among others. The NEC SDN Partner Space ecosystem is continually expanding through the introduction of new network applications created by startups and established vendors alike.

NEC, as a world recognized leader in OpenFlow-based networking solutions, brings NEC SDN Partner Space members the opportunity to access multiple business opportunities in the new open standard networking environment. Leveraging the applications delivery platform, SDN-enabled virtual data centers and carriers will benefit from the fastest time to market network applications delivery and real-time services provisioning, which drastically reduces operating expense. The NEC SDN Partner Space partnership program benefits are designed to enable partners to grow their businesses and drive new revenue streams in the SDN market. Initially, the NEC SDN Partner Space will focus on the data center, enterprise and university markets.

"NEC SDN Partner Space partnership program will strongly contribute to further global expansion of SDN technology, enabling enterprises and data center providers to dynamically deliver value-added services in record deployment time and at reduced operating expense costs," said, Jiro Kitakaze, Deputy General Manager, Solution Platform Business Division, NEC Corporation.

"Dell's SDN strategy is built on providing customers a choice, allowing them to tailor networks to their specific needs. Dell is committed to open standards and SDN and is pleased to join NEC's SDN Partner Spaces to empower ecosystem partners and customers to innovate and enable new capabilities," said Arpit Joshipura, Vice President Product Management & Strategy, Dell Networking.

"As a certified partner of NEC SDN Partner Space ecosystem, Trend Micro is able to access joint business opportunities together with NEC, being sure of effective interoperability with other OpenFlow application, controller, and switch vendors," said Akihiko Omikawa, Executive Vice President at Trend Micro. "With Continuous innovation and excellent service, NEC SDN Partner Space program will allow Trend Micro to develop our business in the growing SDN market over the next few years."

"The NEC SDN Partner Space further enhances the SDN ecosystem by empowering customers to adopt network applications based on open standards to grow their business and drive new revenue streams," said Dominic Wilde, VP Global Product Management of HP Networking. "By aligning our expertise and ensuring interoperability with NEC, HP will ensure customers experience the benefits of SDN without needing to rip and replace their networks."

"As the world's leading provider of open source solutions, Red Hat recognizes the value that openness, transparency and collaboration can bring to software," said Chris Wright, technical director, SDN and NFV, Red Hat. "We are also a Platinum member of the OpenDaylight Project, working to bring those same principles to SDN. It's exciting to see industry initiatives, like the launch of NEC SDN Partner Space, that can help accelerate development and compatibility between the OpenStack cloud ecosystem and virtual networking technologies."

To apply and join NEC SDN Partner Space, visit www.sdnspace.com

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