Westell’s HomeCloud Earns CES 2011 Innovations Award for Design and Engineering

AURORA, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Westell Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTL), a leading provider of broadband products, outside plant telecommunications equipment and conferencing services, today announced that it has been named an International CES 2011 Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree for its visionary HomeCloud™ solution and groundbreaking HomeCloud Digital Home Manager (DHM) network appliance. Products entered in this prestigious program are judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media to honor outstanding design and engineering in cutting edge consumer electronics products across 35 product categories.

“The CEA and International CES are prestigious industry organizations, and we are proud to be recognized for our technology innovation and excellence by industry experts”

Cloud-based applications accessed via the Internet are becoming increasingly important to residential consumers. The benefits of these applications include virtualized storage, device and location independence, and ease of use. However, the expanding use of these applications is leading to increased complexity in sharing personal data with the right services at the right time. Also, consumers are concerned with the privacy of their data -- how it is used today by a particular application provider, and how it may be used in the future.

HomeCloud simplifies the situation for the end consumer by creating a home-based cloud computing environment. In doing so, consumers unify their home data access and gain an application platform from which to run a personalized set of cloud-like applications. Since HomeCloud applications operate within the home, users have improved control of their personal data. HomeCloud allows them to easily share and synchronize data among their home devices. When desired, it can also selectively link home data to their preferred Internet-based applications and services. At the heart of the solution is the HomeCloud DHM. The DHM is a new consumer network appliance from Westell that utilizes a patent-pending combination of specialized software and hardware in order to create a personal cloud in the home.

“The CEA and International CES are prestigious industry organizations, and we are proud to be recognized for our technology innovation and excellence by industry experts,” said Christopher J. Shaver, Vice President and General Manager of Westell’s Customer Networking Solutions division. “The Innovations Award validates our concept for bringing cloud application technology into the home,” he said.

Westell’s HomeCloud DHM will be displayed at the 2011 International CES, which runs January 6-9, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of the Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase. The showcase will feature honorees by product category in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Additional information including introductory white papers can be obtained by visiting http://www.homecloud.com.

About Westell

Westell Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is a holding company for Westell, Inc. and Conference Plus, Inc. Westell, Inc. designs, distributes, markets and services a broad range of broadband customer-premises equipment, digital transmission, remote monitoring, power distribution and demarcation products used by telephone companies and other telecommunications service providers. Conference Plus, Inc. is a leading global provider of audio, web, video and IP conferencing services.