News release

Compaq Delivers Large Scale SANs

Leading the Move from SAN Islands to Enterprise SANs

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) is setting an industry milestone by increasing the capability of its Storage Area Networks (SANs) five-fold to 20 switches and 320 ports. StorageWorks SANs now allow customers to bridge the gap from SAN islands to single, centrally managed SANs providing design flexibility and seamless integration in heterogeneous computing environments. The delivery of large scale SAN capability is a significant step in the fulfillment of Compaq's Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA).

Compaq's expanded SAN switch and port count in various server and storage array combinations, depending on enterprise-specific requirements, provides the flexibility to deliver up to 280TB of online, upgradable, modular storage.

Extending SAN Islands to Enterprise-wide SANs

Until now, customers configured large SANs as SAN islands. Enterprise-wide SANs join isolated storage islands together and establish a dedicated connection between storage elements and servers in one centrally managed, integrated infrastructure. StorageWorks SANs simplify the storage configurations and resources to multivendor servers and applications.

"Many early SAN implementations were accomplished in tightly controlled environments with the aid of the supplier's professional services organization," said John McArthur, Vice President of Storage Research at IDC. "Today's announcement of StorageWorks SAN design rules and large-scale storage area networks with Compaq-defined SAN topologies demonstrates the continued maturation of storage area networks."

Compaq offers a heterogeneous SAN Design Guide with two approaches to configuring SANs:

• A portfolio of recommended SAN topologies that enable users to simplify their SAN installation.
• A flexible custom-design using SAN fabric rules that allows customers to configure and modify their SAN to accommodate current needs as well as lay the foundation for future growth.

"We can give our enterprise customers the large SANs they need for a rapidly growing storage environment," said Pete Korce, Director, Multivendor Storage, Compaq Computer Corporation. "This large scale expansion allows users to extend their SAN to cost-effectively meet the full demands of enterprise-class computing."

Multivendor Support & Availability

StorageWorks SAN infrastructure and storage array products support multiple operating systems including Windows NT, Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server, SUN Solaris, Tru64 UNIX, OpenVMS, Novell NetWare, Red Hat and SuSE Linux, IBM AIX, HP-UX and SGI IRIX.

StorageWorks SAN and storage array products are available today and can be purchased from authorized Compaq resellers. For more information on StorageWorks SAN, visit http://www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/SAN/enterprise-san.html.

About Compaq Enterprise Storage Group

Compaq Enterprise Storage, the number one open storage solutions supplier, is the industry leader in the development and delivery of the Open SAN. Recognized for its vision and ability to execute, Compaq Enterprise Storage Group is committed to simplifying the Open SAN through its Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA), which enables customers to efficiently manage complex, mixed storage environments. More information on Compaq StorageWorks and SANworks solutions is available by going to http://www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/san/index.html.

About Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation, a Fortune Global 100 company, is the largest supplier of computing systems in the world. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures, and markets hardware, software, solutions, and services, including industry-leading enterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, and communications products, commercial desktop and portable products, and consumer PCs.

Compaq products and services are sold in more than 200 countries directly to businesses, through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners, and directly to businesses and consumers through Compaq's e-commerce Web site at http://www.compaq.com. Compaq markets its products and services primarily to customers from the business, home, government, and education sectors. Customer support and information about Compaq and its products and services are available at http://www.compaq.com.