News release

Compaq's Global Enterprise Storage Leadership Confirmed by Gartner Dataquest Research

Compaq Computer Corporation's (NYSE: CPQ) Enterprise Storage Group is the world's number one supplier of storage area networks (SANs), according to research from Gartner Dataquest on 2000 sales. Gartner Dataquest reports that with more than 24,000 units shipped last year, Compaq sold more SAN-attached storage systems than its six nearest competitors combined, accounting for a 48.5 percent market share.

"The enterprise storage space currently is going through significant redefinition in terms of what customers are buying," said Roger Cox, chief analyst with Gartner Dataquest. "Recent Gartner Dataquest research projects that SAN-based storage will grow from just 16.3 percent of the total multi-user storage market in 2000 to 70.7 percent in 2005. The much more restrictive direct attached storage (DAS) paradigm, where storage is directly attached to a server, is rapidly being displaced by the more flexible and cost-effective storage area network (SAN) paradigm. Companies that maintain clear leadership in the SAN arena will end up dominating the entire storage market."

In addition to its industry-leading share of the SAN market, Compaq also increased its revenue market share on Windows NT from 17.4 percent in 1999 to 24.9 percent in 2000. Further proving its commitment to producing interoperable systems, Compaq enterprise storage also nearly doubled the number of units delivered for attachment to Sun Microsystems' Solaris servers.

"We definitely see a pattern of strong market momentum for the Compaq SAN," said Mark Lewis, vice president and general manager, Compaq Enterprise Storage Group. "We are clearly outdistancing our competition where it matters most—the number of production SANs successfully sold to customers, each of whom has chosen Compaq instead of EMC."

National Traveler's Life Company (NTL) chose the Compaq SAN over the offerings of the other major storage companies based on existing customer recommendations and Compaq's ability to craft a production SAN solution to meet NTL's growing storage needs.

"In addition to solving our IT problems, Compaq StorageWorks solutions offer the best value and are easy to implement and manage," says Steve Block, senior systems administrator, National Traveler's Life Insurance Company.

Additionally, NTL credits its Compaq SAN—including SANWorks storage management software--with saving the company 600-800 IT personnel hours each month.

Dataquest's Cox corroborated the savings: "The SAN architecture permits many servers to share common storage assets, improving storage utilization efficiency, expanding client access to mission-critical data, while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO)."

Lewis added, "Compaq's SAN dominance validates our unique Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA), which enables us to tailor robust production SANs to customers' needs. When customers buy a SAN from Compaq, they receive a highly reliable, scalable, and modular solution that delivers high performance and investment protection."

SAN Supplier Unit Market Share, 2000

About Compaq Enterprise Storage Group

Compaq Enterprise Storage, the number one open storage solutions supplier, leads the industry 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. Information on Compaq StorageWorks and SANworks solutions is available at http://www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/SAN/index.html.

About Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation, a Fortune Global 100 company, is a leading global provider of technology and solutions. 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 that are sold in more than 200 countries. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.