SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 18, 2012) - ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: [ IWSY ]) ("IWS"), a leader in multimodal biometric security solutions, has introduced IWS CloudID, its next-generation cloud-ready suite of identity solutions which it will feature at the 2012 Biometric Consortium Conference & Biometric Technology Expo in Tampa, Florida on September 18-20, 2012.

IWS CloudID is a modular, service-orientated architecture-based software platform that allows the rapid development and deployment of highly secure, yet flexible identity solutions, from the creation and management of secure credentials, including IDs, passports, driver's licenses, smart cards, and access control credentials, to integrated mug shots, fingerprint livescan, and investigative capabilities. CloudID was designed to adapt to evolving customer requirements and emerging market demands, thereby delivering a "future proof" identity management solution.

The IWS CloudID Product Suite consists of three independent, yet tightly integrated software layers which include client and server software modules that can be selected and configured to create customized solutions and reusable identity frameworks. These layers are the IWS CloudID Server Platform, IWS CloudID Business Services and IWS CloudID Applications. 

• IWS CloudID Server Platform: Server-based software modules designed to add or enhance biometric identity management and credential issuance capabilities to existing applications or to support the development of these capabilities in new end-to-end applications. This includes the Biometric Engine^® 2.0 (BE 2.0), which represents the heart of the server platform.
  
  
• IWS CloudID Business Services: Business service software modules designed to enable existing or new applications to leverage the capabilities of the IWS CloudID Server Platform.
  
  
• IWS CloudID Applications: Client-based applications that provide out-of-the-box biometric enrollment, identification, verification, card printing and encoding capabilities designed to enable rapid development and deployment of biometric identity management and credentialing solutions. 
  

"At the end of 2011 ImageWare set the goal to become the world leader in biometric-based identity management for the cloud," said Jim Miller, chairman and CEO of ImageWare. "The release of our BE 2.0 earlier this year and now our CloudID product suite reflects the great strides we have made toward this goal. These efforts have begun to show results, as demonstrated by Fujitsu's recently announced certification of our biometric engine on its worldwide NuVola cloud platform."

Two significant innovations distinguish this next-generation identity platform from previous ImageWare products:

• IWS CloudID extends the flexible, technology and vendor independent "plug-in" approach that ImageWare invented for biometric applications across the entire identity platform, creating a layered, highly modular product suite.
  
  
• IWS CloudID achieves optimal performance whether delivered as part of traditional on-premise client server computing solutions or embedded in cloud-based services.
  

The CloudID product suite is also compatible with industry-leading and custom identity management servers and software components. This allows solution developers to replace or supplement server platforms, business services or application modules with their own proprietary or independent third-party offerings.

The heart of the CloudID Product Suite is the re-envisioned and re-engineered BE 2.0. BE 2.0 accelerates the development and deployment of enterprise-class biometric identity solutions for hundreds of millions of data sets. It also provides a level of modularity, interoperability and massive scalability -- from mobile devices to large-scale databases -- previously unavailable in the biometrics and credentialing marketplace.

CloudID is easily incorporated into new or existing cloud-enabled environments or as cloud-ready software into traditional networked client server and data center IT infrastructures. CloudID achieves optimal performance in either configuration and is easily transitioned from non-cloud to cloud environments. 

About ImageWare Systems, Inc.
ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: [ IWSY ]) is a leading developer of identity management solutions, providing biometric, secure credential and law enforcement technologies. Scalable for worldwide deployment, ImageWare's biometric product line includes a multi-biometric engine that is hardware and algorithm independent, enabling the enrollment and management of unlimited population sizes. ImageWare's identification products are used to manage and issue secure credentials, including national IDs, passports, driver's licenses, smart cards and access control credentials. ImageWare's digital booking products provide law enforcement with integrated mug shot, fingerprint livescan and investigative capabilities. ImageWare is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with offices in Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, Ontario. For more information on ImageWare Systems, visit [ www.iwsinc.com ].

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