Features - Storage Innovations:

ASTRUM ANNOUNCES ACTIVE STORAGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

Astrum Software has introduced a new storage management solution for actively managing data-intensive, mission-critical applications and enterprise storage resources.

Unlike traditional passive approaches that require extensive manual intervention and limited scalability, Astrum Software's Active Storage Management (ASM) solution is comprised of technology, software and professional services that enable policy-driven management of mission-critical applications and logical storage resources across heterogeneous platforms and disparate infrastructures including NAS, DAS and SAN.

The ASM solution is highlighted by the new Web-based Astrum 1.5 storage software that centrally monitors, reports on and proactively manages storage resources for mission-critical applications, including Microsoft Exchange email and Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases. Astrum 1.5 provides a consolidated, storage-centric knowledge base for mission-critical applications, their associated data and logical platform information. Astrum 1.5 is complemented by a suite of ProService Paks that provide professional services for product installation and support corporate cost-savings initiatives such as storage migration, resource consolidation and storage assessments.

Astrum 1.5 maps business processes with the storage resources that support them so organizations can ensure uptime of critical applications while efficiently managing storage resources. It offers the ability to create policies that direct how IT departments govern users, applications and storage. These policies can then be applied automatically in a repeatable fashion across applications and systems so companies can move closer to storage self-management.

F. Daniel Haley, president and CEO of Astrum Software, stated "ASM contrasts with manual management and passive SRM approaches by automating best practice storage management processes in support of business continuance and resource consolidation. It offers knowledge of the application and its relationship with source data affecting availability enterprise wide."

According to Ray Paquet, vice president & Research Director with Gartner, "Active storage solutions go beyond passive monitoring and allow companies to implement policy-based management of enterprise-wide storage resources. The ability to easily automate storage management in this manner lets companies better leverage existing storage capacity and IT staff resources while gaining more control over managing the storage requirements of mission-critical applications."

Nancy Marrone, Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Storage Group, said, "Existing SRM solutions have not seen the adoption rates once predicted in part because of their passive nature. SRM solutions did little but report on the information gathered, leaving the user to make manual adjustments to their storage resources. By automating both the collection of the data and the actions taken on that data, Astrum Software has moved its storage solution to the next stage of ASM and is allowing the enterprise to manage storage resources for critical applications. We believe the new automation features will bring a great deal of added value to the end user." Astrum 1.5 is immediately available, and pricing is based on storage capacity. The following are additional major benefits of Astrum 1.5:

Policy-Based Storage Management -- Astrum 1.5 provides unprecedented levels of automation and flexibility for implementing policy-based storage management across multiple applications and storage infrastructures. It collects storage-related application data so an administrator can monitor critical resources by application and establish thresholds that will trigger actions to proactively manage application storage requirements.

Astrum 1.5 supports many platforms, including Windows NT/2000/XP, Sun Solaris, Red Hat Linux, HP-UX and IBM AIX. It also supports NAS and NetWare clients as well as Veritas Volume Manager on Solaris and Windows platforms. The unique Policy Task List (PTL) feature allows actions to occur automatically in sequential order according to pre-defined policies so IT executives can automate storage management across diverse storage environments. A PTL can include scans of metadata, alerts, report jobs, or Intelligent Actions which automatically move, delete, compress or stage data based on a wide range of user-defined characteristics.

Simplicity and Ease of Use -- Astrum 1.5 installs in just a few minutes and provides friendly Wizards that guide administrators through the configuration and implementation process. It offers a customizable Astrum Dashboard web page that contains Snapshots of charts, tables and other customizable content relevant to IT departments. Snapshots can be setup to automatically refresh critical information on specific applications or storage resources in real time. Astrum 1.5 has been designed to excel in heterogeneous, complex open systems environments. It includes a full-featured API and CLI and offers the ability to trigger other software applications and send traps to any SNMP manager.

Astrum Reporting -- Astrum 1.5 offers rich, full-featured reporting ranging from environment-wide summaries to file-level detail with over 40 standard reports and the ability to easily develop custom reports. Storage assessment reports that support resource consolidation projects are also included with Astrum 1.5 to enable swift consolidation and migration. The logical grouping of storage elements and users -- combined with chargeback-specific features -- enable the accurate tracking and allocation of storage costs throughout the enterprise.

Security -- Logon security is provided via SSL encryption, and all communications between the user and the console are encrypted. Astrum 1.5 components communicate with each other using SSL to ensure secure communications, and administrators must be authenticated before gaining access.

Superior and Interactive Customer Support -- Technical support is available 24x7, and Astrum 1.5 offers optional features that allow customers to grant Astrum Software support representatives encrypted access to the installation for troubleshooting. Optional Roadside Assistance interactive customer support features allow customers flexible methods for contacting storage support specialists. They can click from within the software to chat online with technical experts. Support representatives can optionally be granted temporary remote access permission to assist administrators in resolving support issues.

About Astrum Software

Astrum Software offers Active Storage Management solutions for Fortune 5000 enterprise customers. The Company offers technology, software and professional services that provide a complete solution for cost-effectively and efficiently managing information growth. For more information, please visit www.astrumsoftware.com.

Contact: Suzanne Hardy of Astrum Software Corporation, 617-242-5757x153, suzanne.hardy@astrumsoftware.com.