Cognizant and Eagle Genomics to Work with Pistoia Alliance to Develop a Cloud-based Platform for Streamlining Sequence Services

By Cognizant, PRNE
Monday, April 11, 2011

LONDON, April 12, 2011 - Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), a leading provider of consulting, technology,
and business process outsourcing services, and Eagle Genomics Ltd., a
bioinformatics software company specializing in genomic data management and
integration, today announced they are working with the Pistoia Alliance,
Inc., a nonprofit, precompetitive alliance of life science companies and
vendors, as one of the groups engaged to develop a conceptual cloud-based
platform to facilitate access to public and proprietary sources of gene
sequence data.

(Logo: https://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110329/NY67603LOGO )

The Pistoia Alliance's sequence services working group aims to define and
document an externally hosted service for securely storing and mining both
proprietary derived gene/sequence information and public domain gene
databases. This conceptual platform developed by Cognizant and Eagle
Genomics, as part of this piloting stage, will enable working group companies
to securely share their bioinformatics resources among simultaneous,
registered users in a secure, encrypted environment, while leveraging the
flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiencies of a cloud-based Software as
a Service (SaaS) platform. The future of collaboration and externalization
within the life sciences industry will increasingly utilize hosted
information services, and the Pistoia Alliance expects to run future pilots
to further explore this business model involving a range of participants.

"This engagement supports the Pistoia Alliance's goal to inspire
different ways of thinking in the life sciences industry and effect real
change to benefit all our organizations," said Nick Lynch, President at
Pistoia Alliance. "With the combined strengths of Cognizant and Eagle
Genomics and the broader Pistoia community, we will build a platform to
define standards in sequence services, while overcoming the challenges of
disparate data and tools."

Cognizant and Eagle Genomics will combine the best of their consulting,
domain, technology, and business process expertise to effectively deliver the
business solution. While Eagle Genomics will contribute specialized
bioinformatics knowledge, Cognizant will manage the development of the
platform, oversee testing and security validation, and help strengthen the
initiative by managing relationships with existing and potential member
organizations. The platform will deploy a secure and scalable installation of
Ensembl, a software system and supporting database developed jointly by the
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the European Bioinformatics Institute to
produce and maintain automatic annotation on selected eukaryotic genomes. The
platform will deliver a Plasmapper and a gene alias service as part of the
initial functional services.

"Eagle and Cognizant have demonstrated a deep understanding of the
open-source bioinformatics world and how best to adapt and support these
publicly available resources to meet the high standards required by the
leading pharmaceutical companies that are members of the Pistoia Alliance,"
said Richard Holland, co-founder and Operations and Delivery Director at
Eagle Genomics Ltd.

"We look forward to partnering with Eagle Genomics in helping Pistoia
Alliance address the challenges of fast evolving sequence services while
streamlining communication and workflows," said Peter Sheppard, Assistant
Vice President, Life Sciences practice at Cognizant. "We are committed to
leveraging our domain-intensive global resources, deep understanding of drug
development processes and cloud computing models, and global program
management and delivery capabilities to build and manage a platform that
supports the Pistoia Alliance's aim to lower barriers to innovation by
improving the interoperability of business processes, data, and technology
interfaces in the life sciences research industry."

About the Pistoia Alliance

The Pistoia Alliance is a global, not-for-profit, precompetitive alliance
of life science companies, vendors, publishers, and academics that aims to
lower barriers to innovation by improving the interoperability of R&D
business processes. Initially conceived in 2007 by informatics experts at
four "Top Five" pharma companies, the Pistoia Alliance now includes over 45
member companies. By assembling and aggregating common use cases, identifying
specific, high-value areas of opportunity, and exploiting contemporary
technologies and service delivery models, the Pistoia Alliance serves as a
hub for envisioning information-based solutions that will drive innovation
and productivity in the precompetitive domains of life science R&D. Learn
more about the Pistoia Alliance by visiting www.pistoiaalliance.org.

About Eagle Genomics Ltd

Eagle Genomics Ltd. is a bioinformatics software company specialising in
the provision of open-source solutions for genomic data management and
integration. Based in Cambridge, UK at the heart of Europe's largest biotech
cluster, the company has rapidly become one of the leading providers of
open-source bioinformatics technical support to customers around the world.
Eagle can build bespoke solutions based around open-source platforms that fit
exact requirements and run them anywhere from desktops to grids, clusters to
clouds. For more, please visit: www.eaglegenomics.com/

About Cognizant

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology,
consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping
the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in
Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client
satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process
expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of
work. With over 50 delivery centers worldwide and approximately 104,000
employees as of December 31, 2010, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100,
the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 1000 and is ranked among
the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us
online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements which may constitute
forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are
necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future
events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general
economic conditions and the factors discussed in our most recent Form 10-K
and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant
undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

U.S.: Catherine Marenghi, +1-781-223-8673, catherine.marenghi at cognizant.com; or Europe: Fiona Goldsworthy or Claire Rayner, Brands2Life, +44-7903-114-590, cognizant at brands2life.com; or Asia-Pac: Harsh Kabra, +91-982-327-3191, harsh.kabra at cognizant.com

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