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COMPAQ OUTLINES STRATEGY FOR STORAGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

Compaq Computer Corporation outlined its heterogeneous storage management strategy during a forum of storage industry experts hosted by Blanc & Otus Public Relations, a Hill and Knowlton Company.

"Customers are providing positive feedback on our software strategy every day," said Compaq's storage chief Mark Lewis. Lewis, vice president and general manager, Compaq Enterprise Storage Group, affirmed plans for broadening the SANworks heterogeneous storage management portfolio that further simplify administration of storage assets, reduce IT overhead costs and empower customers to manage their information more efficiently.

The Compaq storage management architecture is designed to manage anyone's storage on anyone's server. "Compaq was the first company to present a centralized, integrated vision for open SAN management and deliver solutions against it," Lewis said. "Compaq leads the industry in heterogeneous device support. By consolidating storage management, Compaq offers customers simplicity, improved service levels and investment protection for their changing business needs."

This 'visionary' thinking produced significant market firsts including:

A revolutionary appliance-based storage management strategy, the logical future for network storage management.

Management of multi-vendor storage arrays including Compaq StorageWorks, EMC Symmetrix and IBM ESS.

Long-distance data replication using FC-IP technology, a requirement for cost-effective data distribution on a global scale.

Market leading offerings for Microsoft, NT and Windows2000 platforms

Compaq enterprise storage solutions increase the value of customers' IT investments by providing a modular, Web-centric approach. Historically, management based on storage arrays or servers was limited in a homogeneous distributed environment. Compaq delivers a true network model with a focus on heterogeneous device management through an appliance-centric approach, independent of the number or type of storage arrays and servers in the SAN. Benefits are realized by moving management functionality into the network where customers will ensure scaling for growing storage environments.

Recent Product Highlights -- SANworks Network View 2.0

Designed to simplify the management of heterogeneous storage networks, this appliance-based tool provides automated device discovery, graphical topology mapping, advanced device monitoring and performance management. With the addition of heterogeneous storage management, customers now have the ability to discover, visualize, monitor and report on Compaq and third-party disk arrays. Key status and performance information is available at critical points throughout the SAN, helping reduce total cost of ownership by enabling more effective device utilization and improved performance.

"Network View is a total storage infrastructure management tool," said Todd Warnock, manager of Technology Services at Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group (RBMG). "I can monitor all of my storage networked devices and at the same time analyze performance metrics allowing me to optimize my SAN configuration for the highest level of data throughput."

Released in December 2001, Network View 2.0 is the first Compaq offering to include support for EMC Symmetrix arrays, leveraging APIs from Compaq's recent cross-licensing agreement with EMC.

Recent Product Highlights -- Virtualized Storage Management Solutions for Exchange 2000 & SQL Server 2000

Virtualized Storage Management for Exchange 2000, and Virtualized Storage Management for SQL Server 2000 extend Compaq's leadership in deploying Microsoft Exchange 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 environments by delivering maximized availability through rapid recovery and on-line storage growth capabilities.

More than 50 percent of scheduled application downtime can be attributed to storage management activities. This downtime is reduced or eliminated with this solution. Through the integration of SANworks Virtual Replicator v.3.0 and customizable scripts, customers can manage growth and enhance recoverability of their Exchange or SQL Server systems. By using a snapshot of their respective environment, customers can resume full operation of their Microsoft environment in minutes. This solution increases the level of data protection by providing an additional rapid recovery alternative to restoring from tape. Additionally, dynamic online storage growth can be achieved without downtime, compared to more than one hour of downtime using standard volume growth practices.

"By partnering with companies like Compaq, the WorldWide Prime Integrator for Exchange 2000, we are able to deliver highly beneficial storage solutions for our customers," commented Kevin McCuistion, group product manager, Exchange, Microsoft Corporation. McCuistion added, "The Virtualized Storage Management for Exchange 2000 by Compaq StorageWorks solutions take advantage of Compaq's highly scalable and easy-to-manage storage systems and management software, in addition to their expertise in designing, deploying and managing Exchange 2000 infrastructures. These StorageWorks solutions by Compaq provide a great way for customers to maximize the availability of their Exchange 2000 environment."

"Compaq is the industry's network storage pioneer," Lewis said. As the world's largest storage provider and the first company to envision storage as a utility service though ENSA, Compaq combines management of the most acclaimed storage architecture with management of heterogeneous SAN components, empowering information for its customers.

For more information visit www.compaq.com/storage.