In addition, GemStone has appointed Takashi Kerakawachi as managing director, GemStone Systems KK. In this role, Kerakawachi will be responsible for growing GemStone's direct sales in the Asia Pacific region as well as enhancing strategic partnerships.

GemStone's flagship product, GemFire Enterprise, is a high-performance, distributed data caching platform that serves as the core component of the GemFire Enterprise Data Fabric (EDF). It supports multiple topologies that allow it to be easily embedded into application architectures such as J2EE, .NET, Grid, SOA and portals and provide high performance throughput and scalability at significantly lower costs. Proven in mission-critical programs in financial services, telecommunications, energy, logistics and federal programs, GemFire Enterprise is built on one of the industry's fastest and most reliable data distribution and caching systems. GemStone's expertise in fulfilling clients' demands for high-performance data management in US and European financial institutions is now extended to offer field-proven solutions to the rapidly globalizing Japanese and Asian markets.

According to Neil Katkov, group manager of Asia research at Celent, "Financial services institutions in Asia-Pacific are augmenting their investment in external software and external IT services far more than any other region." Celent estimates IT spending growth at financial services institutions in Asia-Pacific at 11.4 percent per year from 2006 to 2008.

With extensive experience in grid computing and over 25 years of sales and strategic planning experience in Japan, Kerakawachi will lead GemStone System KK's sales and partnership efforts across the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, Kerakawachi served as a senior manager, sales and marketing at Hitachi, Ltd. and BEA Systems Japan, Ltd, where he worked on both direct and channel sales teams across industries including financial.

"This moment is the culmination of the work and commitmentttment of our Japanese partners who collectively have trained large teams of their engineers to ensure our Japanese customers have the local support and expertise required to succeed in their mission critical applications. We continue to demonstrate our commitment to Japan and our leadership in this space." said Juan Menendez, senior vice president, GemStone Systems. "Kerakawachi's proven expertise and deep knowledge of the local market will help us grow our presence in the region and strengthen our ability to target and engage key customers and partners."

The GemStone offices in Japan are located on the 3rd Floor of the AIG Kabuto-cho Building, 5-1 Nihonbashi Kabuto-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0026, Japan.