Features - Storage Innovations:

QUANTUM CHARGES AHEAD WITH THREE NEW INNOVATIONS

Quantum Corp, a leading provider of data protection systems, recently unveiled innovations that expand its disk-based, enhanced backup offerings to meet an even broader range of customers' critical data protection needs. In a three-fold announcement, Quantum introduced the DX100 enhanced backup system, rolled out a unique compression technology that will double storage capacity and increase performance of its enhanced backup products, and added greater functionality and scalability to its already-popular DX30 enhanced backup system. With these innovations, which together represent a newly-designated "DX Series" product family, Quantum is furthering its commitment to providing enhanced backup products and solutions that advance and complement traditional tape backup through innovative combinations of disk-based hardware and software.

Quantum's DX Series product family addresses the backup challenges faced by companies of all sizes, including the ability to successfully complete backups within available backup windows and the challenges associated with restoring data to meet demanding service level agreements. The DX Series also leverages Quantum's years of data protection technology leadership to offer enhanced backup products that blend key innovations of tape drive technology and the benefits of optimized disk backup.

"Quantum has taken a unique approach to disk-based backup with their emulated tape library technology that will benefit many customers who may be considering the purchase of disk arrays as part of their overall backup strategy," said Steve Kenniston, storage industry analyst for Enterprise Storage Group. "Quantum's strategy hits home with IT professionals, and their thought process around enhanced backup technology. We see a number of IT administrators beginning to embrace backup to disk as a means to solve backup challenges in the enterprise."

Quantum DX100 Enhanced Backup System

The DX100 is designed to handle the backup and restore requirements of data centers running mission-critical database, CRM and ERP applications. The DX100 is composed of a state-of-the-art controller for data management with multiple optimized disk arrays allowing for initial native capacity scalable from roughly 6 to 50 Terabytes (TB). The DX100 is planned to ship with high-availability hardware features, including redundant, hot swap fans, power supplies, dual redundant Fibre Channel ports and RAID protection. Added software benefits planned include operational management through SNMP, performance monitoring and remote replication.

As with Quantum's DX30 enhanced backup system, the DX100 will be optimized for backup, providing customers with management and performance benefits not found in standard ATA disk arrays used for backup. Most importantly, Quantum has designed its DX Series products to emulate a tape library, preserving customers' existing investment in their current backup processes and infrastructure. Customers can set the preferred size and number of emulated tape cartridges in order to easily adapt DX products for their specific data protection policies, and increase backup performance by multiplexing simultaneous backup jobs and easily sharing backups from a single DX product to multiple tape devices.

Compression Technology

The DX Series product family can be augmented with Quantum's unique, patent-pending hardware compression technology. Compression will allow customers to approximately double the available capacity of the DX products and provide additional I/O off-load for performance benefits. This technology can be easily added as an upgrade to any DX Series product already in use or factory-installed on new products. By adding compression, customers benefit from a reduced cost per gigabyte of storage while the system performs at a level associated with primary arrays.

"The Quantum DX Series family of products, with the combination of its optimized hardware and software and added innovation such as its patent-pending compression technology, provide significant backup, restore, and total cost of ownership benefits over standard RAID arrays," said David Kenyon, product line manager of Quantum's Storage Solutions Group. "By designing enhanced backup products that are easy to scale, manage and integrate, Quantum significantly increases the value and effectiveness of backup."

Quantum Adds Scalability to DX30

To provide a cost-effective modular approach to disk-based backup, Quantum has added scalability to its DX30 enhanced backup system. With the availability of additional expansion arrays, customers can add scalable capacity to the DX30 from 3.4 TB to 12.4 TB giving a modular "pay as you grow" capability to disk-based backup. Usable capacity can be effectively tripled while the data protection solution is managed as a single unit. By building upon an initial DX30 investment with expansion arrays, customers benefit from a reduced total cost per gigabyte.

Availability

The Quantum DX100 is scheduled to be available to customers through select Quantum resellers during the third calendar quarter of 2003. Quantum's compression technology is scheduled to be available in the summer of 2003 for DX30 customers and to DX100 customers once the product is generally available. The DX30 is currently available for purchase through select Quantum resellers at an MSRP of $55,000. Expansion arrays and the associated mounting kits for the DX30 are scheduled to be available in June 2003. Quantum's DX Series product family is targeted for customers at a price per gigabyte of between $9.00 and $14.00 for most configurations.

About Quantum

Quantum Corp, founded in 1980, is a global leader in data protection, meeting the needs of business customers with enterprise-wide storage solutions and services. Quantum is the world's largest supplier of tape drives, and its DLTtape technology is the standard for backup, archiving, and recovery of mission-critical data. Quantum is also a leader in the design, manufacture and service of automated tape libraries used to manage, store and transfer data. Over the past year, Quantum has been one of the pioneers in the emerging market of disk-based backup, offering a solution that emulates a tape library and is optimized for data protection. Quantum sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2003, were approximately $871 million. Quantum Corp., 501 Sycamore Dr., Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 944-4000, www.quantum.com.