News release

Compaq Powers Business Continuance Solution with FC-IP Storage Technology

StorageWorks Delivers Global Replication Network

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ), the world's largest enterprise storage company, today announces a storage industry milestone—the availability of qualified Fibre Channel and Internet Protocol (FC-IP) technology to implement global data replication networks. This achievement once again raises the bar for storage networking by extending the reach of SANs around the globe and enhancing data recovery solutions with greater flexibility and reduced costs.

Compaq customer The South Financial Group is a real-world user of storage networks using FC-IP technology to achieve long-distance data replication.

"In designing our business continuance strategy, we needed data recovery assurance and we wanted it to work within our existing IT infrastructure," said Hart Raley, vice president of client services, The South Financial Group. "The Compaq StorageWorks solution exceeded our expectations."

Compaq now provides customers such as The South Financial Group with a SAN-based business continuance solution that leverages existing IP networks and allows users to implement solutions that extend across the city, across the country, or around the world.

"The use of IP-enhanced storage networks for worldwide data distribution significantly improves SAN scalability, leverages existing customer skills, delivers faster time to implementation, simplifies long-distance SAN networking and provides new price performance options," said Mark Sorenson, vice president, Compaq Storage Software and Solutions Division. "Our SANworks Data Replication Manager (DRM) solution takes SANs into a whole new dimension by using FC-IP to replicate business-critical data around the globe."

The SANworks DRM FC-IP solution offers customers more flexible ways to manage their business continuance systems. By enabling remote replication of data in real time, Compaq offers customers a disaster tolerant, no-single-point-of-failure SAN solution based on StorageWorks Fibre Channel controllers. By using their existing IT infrastructures, customers can leverage regional SANs as recovery sites within the broader national or global infrastructure using IP networking.

Customers may begin to broaden the reach of data replication from other companies as well. Compaq recently announced data replication solutions for Oracle and Giant Loop Networks. The company has also broadened support for Metro Area Networks (MAN) by introducing support for additional Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology from Cisco Systems and Controlware.

Compaq demonstrated DRM FC-IP technology by linking the SAN across three continents in September 2001. Now available for customers around the world, this technology provides a production-ready application of the Global Replication Network as defined in Compaq's ENSA-2 roadmap.

"As Compaq brings its FC-IP offering to the market, it also brings a desire to fully test remote copy solutions," said Dianne McAdam, analyst, Illuminata, Inc. "This is not easy stuff. To have completed interoperability testing with three partners gives the user community alternatives when considering the addition of FCIP-based solutions to their business continuance plans."

The South Financial Group Implementation⁽¹⁾

The South Financial Group initially implemented its DRM FC-IP solution to prepare for the potentially disastrous impact of stormy weather on the southeast U.S. coast.

"We live in a region vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms. We needed our SAN in Lexington, South Carolina to be fully replicated to another SAN-based data recovery center at our headquarters 105 miles away in Greenville," said Hart Raley. "With Fibre Channel and FC-IP technology from Compaq, we designed a redundant infrastructure to improve performance and protect our data."

At the center of the company's data storage infrastructure is Compaq's SANworks Data Replication Manager software performing real-time replication over an FC-IP intersite link. The South Financial Group replicates about one gigabyte of changed data over FC-IP daily to meet technical and business needs. Two SAN-attached StorageWorks systems located at the Lexington facility support primary business activities. In Greenville, another StorageWorks Fibre Channel Array safely handles data replication in the event a disaster recovery action is required.

The South Financial Group is in growth mode. Raley anticipates its imaging application will increase from one to 2.5 terabytes during the next year, while the entire replicated SAN will reach nine terabytes. Additionally, the group plans to connect other key business applications to its SAN. Raley concludes, "We are confident that our StorageWorks system will grow as we grow."

Compaq Partners Complete Interoperability Testing

Compaq Enterprise Storage Group and its storage technology partners have completed significant interoperability testing for StorageWorks FC-IP and WDM in WAN and MAN networking solutions. CNT, SANcastle and SAN Valley products have completed StorageWorks FC-IP interoperability testing, have proved fully compatible with StorageWorks arrays, and are ready for implementation. Cisco Systems and Controlware Inc. products have also completed rigorous interoperability testing of Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) and are ready for production use.

Global Replication Network Background

The emergence of global replication networks is a significant step forward in business continuance planning. Companies can now extend SANs beyond data centers to optimize their infrastructure investments through cost-effective, remote storage applications. FC-IP data recovery applications run over existing network infrastructure so contingency plans don't require customers to allocate dedicated optic cables for Fibre Channel traffic.

The market demand for FC-IP-based remote replication will continue to grow as companies re-evaluate their business contingency plans. FC-IP will help bring about rapid development of the SAN market by increasing data transmission flexibility and performance and lowering long-distance operational costs. True global data mirroring with the reliability of Fibre Channel SAN and the cost efficiencies of IP networks will deliver new levels of savings and data protection.

For more information about Compaq FC-IP technologies and today's announcement, please see www.compaq.com/storage.

About Compaq Enterprise Storage

Compaq, the number one global storage solutions supplier, is the leader in the development and delivery of the enterprise SAN. Recognized for its vision and ability to execute, Compaq is committed to driving radical simplification and investment protection for enterprise and SMB customers. By continuing to extend its Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA) in key areas such as virtualization, automation, universal network storage and life cycle data management, Compaq enables customers to efficiently manage complex, mixed storage environments. More information on StorageWorks and SANworks solutions is available at www.compaq.com/storage.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a leading global provider of enterprise technology and solutions. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures and markets hardware, software, solutions and services, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, and desktop and portable personal computers that are sold in more than 200 countries. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.