News release

HP Advances to No. 3 Storage Provider, Achieves $1 Billion in XP Enterprise Customer Orders

HP Ships 2,000 HP Surestore XP Disk Array Units Totaling Five Petabytes of Storage

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 20, 2001

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) today announced that it has become the industry's No. 3 external RAID system storage provider as a result of strong storage revenues. This growth is partly attributed to HP reaching $1 billion in XP enterprise customer orders as well as to extraordinary sales of the industry-leading HP Surestore Disk Array XP512 storage system.

According to International Data Corporation, HP's revenues in external RAID storage jumped to 8.6 percent from 6.9 percent¹ advancing HP to the No. 3 company in external RAID systems worldwide. These achievements demonstrate HP's continued leadership in hardware architecture, software and solution integration and its commitment to deliver to customers an always-on Internet infrastructure.

"Achieving these milestones demonstrates HP's leadership position as a networked storage solutions provider and commitment to customers' storage investment," said Nora Denzel, vice president and general manager, HP Networked Storage Solutions Organization. "HP is meeting the business needs of its customers through a holistic approach that focuses on technical innovation, truly heterogeneous solutions and stress-free storage services."

"To complement our large SAP R/3 installation, we have chosen the HP Surestore XP disk array as a solution that provides us with the highest data availability," said Heinz-Peter Broeckskes, CEO at ScaleOn, a 100 percent subsidiary of BAYER AG, Leverkusen/Germany. "Leveraging HP Cluster Extension technology and HP's demonstrated competence in cluster solutions, we integrated 18 XP disk arrays into a large IBM RS/6000 SP environment that meets the highest application uptime requirements and disaster recovery services."

The HP Surestore Disk Array XP512 is one of the world's fastest, most scalable and secure enterprise arrays. Based on HP's revolutionary 6.4 GB/s crossbar switch architecture, the HP Surestore Disk Array XP512 supports up to 512 fibre channel disks delivering 37 terabytes of capacity. This high-end disk array provides a highly available, ultra-high performance data management platform with no single point of failure, non-disruptive upgrades and zero downtime backup.

The HP Surestore Disk Array XP48 is based on the same innovative crossbar technology of the HP Surestore Disk Array XP512 but in a more compact package. The HP Surestore Disk Array XP48 scales to 3.5 TB and supports the same legendary non-stop operation features as the HP Surestore Disk Array XP512. The HP Surestore Disk Array XP48 benefits space-conscious customers, including regional data centers and single application environments, and those with moderate consolidation or storage growth requirements.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services and an Internet infrastructure that's always on.

HP has 88,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

¹ IDC, "2000 Worldwide Disk Systems Forecast and Analysis," December 2000.