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CARDIONOW TO GO FROM PO TO OPERATIONAL SAN IN 24 HOURS

DataDirect Networks,a leading provider of the world's highest performance storage networking appliances, announced that CardioNow, has selected a S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance to power archival storage and retrieval infrastructure for the cardiac imaging provider.

CardioNow based the selection of Silicon Storage Appliance on product's reliability, high availability, and performance in conjunction with DataDirect's service, support and quick response. CardioNow's missioncritical SAN went from purchase order through installation to be fully operational in 24 hours - items that the imaging company feels can only be delivered by a nimble, responsive organization.

"The ability to quickly deploy an appliance that consolidates the functionality of a complete, highly reliable SAN in a single device has allowed us to be up and running in less than 24 hours after sending our purchase order to DataDirect," Grady Floyd, president and chief operating officer, CardioNow, said. "Since the appliance functions as the complete SAN network infrastructure, management is simple and easy along with allowing us to avoid the time-consuming process of integration and interoperability adjustments that plague first-generation SAN installations. This, combined with DataDirect's top service and support, brings us a robust, resilient and dependable archival solution in a turnkey package."

CardioNow's Internet-based digital imaging storage and communication service for cardiac images is replacing the use of cine films and in-house jukeboxbased systems to capture and record angiograms and other procedures performed annually at growing numbers of medical facilities throughout the United States. Cardiologists, referring physicians and other authorized medical professionals affiliated with subscribing hospitals can access their patient'simages from any computer that can connect to the Internet. DataDirect's S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance-based infrastructure enables CardioNow to easily expedite the large file sizes associated with DICOM cardiology procedures to and from subscriber hospitals to CardioNow for archival storage
and retrieval.

Silicon Storage Appliance technology brings healthcare and life science professionals involved in imaging, visualization and entire discovery and development process a way to accelerate their applications, providing data at least three times faster than existing Storage Area Networking (SAN) solutions and ten times faster than Network Attached Storage (NAS) technology. The acceleration of data to applications and users:

• Simply and easily
• allows DataDirect Networks' customers to consolidate and share their storage; Silicon Storage Appliances also bring management advantages to IT professionals tasked with implementing 24/7/365 storage networking foundations. These benefits include the ability to manage up to 100 Terabytes with a single IT administrator (bringing 10x lower Total Costs of Ownership); dynamic re- configuration of storage quickly, simply and non-disruptively; and the elimination of backup windows.

"The benefits that easy-to-deploy Silicon Storage Appliances bring to missioncritical production environments - application acceleration, simple and nondisruptive scaling and easy storage network management - present a very compelling solution for imaging and life science professionals seeking infrastructures to increase productivity, collaboration and workflow," Robert Woolery, vice president, DataDirect Networks, said. "The ability to take an organization into a fully operational SAN in twenty-four hours illustrates how "plug and play" appliances can deliver competitive, cost-effective technology advantages to businesses worldwide."

Advanced Technology Brings Management, Scalability Benefits

DataDirect Networks has created highly scalable, simple-to-deploy and easy-to -manage Silicon Storage Appliances to accelerate application performance, simplify information management, and to lower operating costs. DataDirect's enterprise- class S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance supplies an aggregate bandwidth of 800 megabytes per second and supports up to 512 servers and 180 terabytes of storage, bringing performance and scalability benefits to scientific and commercial supercomputing centers.

The S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance, based on DataDirect's proven S2A 6000 appliance technology, brings a simple-to-deploy, easy-to-manage and affordablestorage network appliance that allows departments and workgroups to achieve
application performance gains, cost-effective scalability and simplified management. Each S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance supplies an aggregate bandwidth up to 400 megabytes per second to Linux, Unix, Windows NT/2000, Sun,AIX, HP-UX and SGI workgroups. The S2A 3000 can easily manage storage network environments ranging in capacity from 500GB to 7 Terabytes.

Customers using DataDirect's Silicon Storage Appliances include the E! Networks, Time Warner Cable, RTL Television, British Broadcasting Company, CineGroupe, Star TV, Loudeye, NASA, NCSA, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, National Century Financial Enterprises, Sandia National Laboratories, and Sonic Foundry, among others. DataDirect SAN partnerships include industry leaders VERITAS Software, Seagate, Emulex, and QLogic, among others.

About CardioNow

CardioNow is a healthcare information technology company dedicated to providing the cardiology community with reliable, secure and cost-effective services for storing and sharing critical patient images and data. CardioNow is the first Image and Information Management Service (IMS) to manage complete DICOM cardiology procedures, providing instant and shared access to these procedures over the Internet. CardioNow's technology is designed to meet or exceed all current security guidelines, as defined by Healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA) standards and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. CardioNow's U.S. headquarters are located in Encinitas, California.

For more info about CardioNow, log on to www.cardionow.com.

About DataDirect Networks

DataDirect Networks is a leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent storage networking appliances. Serving IT professionals in the broadcasting, digital production, government, defense, life sciences, oil and gas industries. DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliances make it easy, simple and trouble-free to accelerate and manage applications, dramatically reducing TCO and increasing ROI. For more information, call 818-700-7600 or visit www.datadirectnet.com.