News release

HP Wins Storage Deal with Major Underground Facility-locating Service Company

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced an agreement with SM&P Utility Resources, an underground facility locator service, to deliver an HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) system to accommodate the company's growing data storage, recovery and protection needs.

SM&P, a subsidiary of The Laclede Group, Inc., is based in Carmel, Ind., and began as a small, family-run, cable locating business in 1979. The company performs more than 10 million cable locating projects a year and generates approximately $130 million in revenues from the fast-growing, $1.3 billion facility-locating industry.

The HP StorageWorks EVA system will help SM&P strengthen its position in the facility-locating market and streamline its business processes by delivering up to 12 terabytes of disc storage. The EVA system, which uses the newest generation of VersaStor technology to drive HP StorageWorks Disk Array technology, will support SM&P's approximately 2,000 employees across 10 states in the central U.S.

"We needed a cost-effective solution with expansion capabilities and HP delivered an ultra-reliable technology system for our company," said Ryan Hyman, IT director, SM&P. "The scalable HP StorageWorks EVA will meet the needs of our company over the long haul."

"HP is committed to working with solution providers to deliver highly reliable technology solutions that growing businesses need to be successful," said David Treadway, director of SMB marketing, HP Personal Systems Group. "Our industry-leading StorageWorks EVA solutions ensure scalability and manageability as customers roll out additional applications to remain competitive in their industry."

San Diego-based Technology Integration Group, a full-service IT systems integrator with an office in Indianapolis, was instrumental in delivering SM&P's new storage system. "Small- and medium-sized businesses with limited IT resources can experience big problems in driving maximum performance out of their computer infrastructure," said Bruce Geier, president and chief executive officer, Technology Integration Group. "HP's StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array helped SM&P address the need to integrate its technology tools to conform with its overall business processes, which in the long run increases productivity and the value of its resources."

HP StorageWorks EVA has one of the highest density disk storage capacities in the industry. Its virtual architecture allows up to twice the normal effective capacity of traditionally architected storage offerings. The HP StorageWorks EVA recently outperformed its nearest competitor by more than 50 percent on the Storage Performance Council Benchmark-1, making it the industry leader in open systems workload environments (see press release "HP Registers Record-breaking Performance with Its Enterprise Virtual Array," Oct. 2, 2002).

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.