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LUMINEX AND KLADANN FORM ALLIANCE FOR MAINFRAME STORAGE

Luminex Software Inc, a leading developer of data distribution, archiving and storage products, announced an alliance with Kladann Informatica Comercio e Servicos Ltda, a leading Brazilian system integration and technology company. Under the alliance, Kladann will offer Luminex's Virtual/BLUE 3990 controller to mainframe data centers throughout Brazil. Virtual/BLUE 3990 enables S/390-class mainframes to use Storage Area Networks (SAN) and open systems RAID directly as mainframe disk. Virtual/BLUE 3990 is the first disk vendor-independent controller that allows open systems disk to be used with proprietary mainframe protocols. Connection to the mainframe is through four ESCON channels; open systems disk can be connected via SCSI or Fibre Channel. The controller handles all ECKD protocol translations for a mainframe to read and write data to open systems disk, making open systems disk storage fully accessible to applications running under VM, VSE, MVS, OS/390, z/OS and z/VM.

"With Virtual/BLUE 3990 and open systems RAID, we can offer an easy to configure system with significantly lower operating costs than similar IBM, EMC or HDS solutions," said Carlos Alberto Bodra Becher, product and services director at Kladann. "We are now migrating our customers' systems from traditional DASD to Virtual/BLUE 3990 in order to take advantage of these improvements."

"Mainframe-based data centers now have the option to use standard RAID and SAN-attached disk with their mainframes," said Peter LaPorte, director of marketing and business development at Luminex. "Aside from the differences in acquisition and maintenance costs -- which are significant, the smaller footprint and lower power consumption of open systems disk make a strong financial case for Virtual/BLUE 3990."

The Virtual/BLUE 3990 controller consists of a dual processor, rack mountable controller. It is available with four ESCON and two Fibre Channel ports emulating 3390 devices with capacity to 12 Terabytes.

"Kladann will provide Virtual/BLUE 3990 as a complete package solution to customers looking for a low cost but high performance DASD for IBM and compatible mainframes," said Mr. Bodra. "It will also enable us to reduce our computing costs and offer a compact solution for disaster recovery or contingency for customers."