Itron Enterprise Edition™ Meter Data Management Benchmark Proves Unparalleled Scalability on Microsoft SQL Server

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.—May 3, 2011—Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today the successful completion of another round of rigorous performance and scalability testing of its Itron Enterprise Edition™ Meter Data Management (IEE MDM) product. This marks the industry's only meter data management solution to perform large-scale benchmarks using Microsoft SQL Server. The comprehensive benchmark validates the solution's capacity to process 500 million meter readings in less than three hours and deliver time-of-use billing determinants for a 10 million meter utility. As a result, utilities can be confident that IEE MDM, deployed on Microsoft SQL Server 2008, provides a reliable, cost-effective, low maintenance platform that supports the largest and most process-intensive deployments.

Together, Itron and Microsoft conducted a series of high-volume data tests on IEE MDM, using SQL Server 2008, with the goal of replicating the genuine demands of a 10 million meter deployment. Each test executed a "day in the life" scenario that involved processing a mix of hourly, 15-minute interval and register data—from data import, validation and estimation to billing determinant calculation and export—to support time-based pricing. These tests verified the IEE MDM and Microsoft SQL database platform performance and scalability on commodity server hardware, which ultimately lowers the total cost of ownership for utilities.

"With smart metering, our customers are collecting tremendous amounts of data. They are looking for a robust, scalable and well-managed solution. This testing confirms that IEE MDM's powerful processing capabilities and ability to scale on SQL Server will meet our customers' future data and budget requirements," said Julie Hance, vice president of Software Solutions, Itron North America. "With a solution on SQL Server, our customers will save on reduced licensing, hardware, administration and support fees, which translate into substantially lower costs over the life of the system."

The global Microsoft and Itron partnership provides customers with the only enterprise-class meter data management system using SQL Server, a combination that is optimized to flexibly scale and address the increasing requirements of tomorrow's smart grid. The combined offering's performance meets the strict timelines required for daily billing and critical meter-to-cash business processes, bringing unprecedented value to utility customers.

"Our customers tell us that they need certainty that the products and solutions they implement today will have the scalability and agility to meet future smart grid requirements as well as integrate with and protect their existing technology investments," said Jon C. Arnold, managing director of Microsoft's Power & Utilities business. "Together, Microsoft and Itron have focused on providing solutions that help utilities execute on their vision of the smart grid and IEE MDM based on SQL Server is a great example of a solution that provides the performance, administration, integration, security and availability that utilities need."