DataCore Software and Promise Technology Announce Landmark Distribution Agreement

DataCore Software and
Promise Technology, Inc., the originator and world leader of ATA RAID data
protection and storage solutions, announced today a landmark distribution
agreement that will dramatically reduce the threshold for entry into the world
of Storage Networking (SANs). Starting this month, Promise will include a copy
of DataCore's disk server software, SANmelody Lite, with every Promise-branded
storage adapter sold. When existing Ethernet infrastructure is employed, there
is literally no additional hardware or software required to deploy a fully
functional multi-user storage network. The two companies expect to install as
many new storage networks in the next six months as have been installed by all
other vendors in the last six years.
For Promise, the distribution agreement marks an acceleration of its "SAN-
for-the-Masses" program for low-cost iSCSI solutions introduced earlier this
year. Already dominant in the ATA RAID segment with an 83 percent market share
in IA (Intel Architecture) servers, this agreement and other forthcoming
solutions represent Promise's entry into the external and networked storage
solutions segments. Promise ATA host bus adapters outsell all other
manufacturers' ATA, SCSI, and Fibre Channel host bus adapters combined. "Both
the direct attach and external storage markets have a common need for the
powerful data protection benefits and increased performance represented by
Promise's vast expertise in ATA RAID solutions," said Andy Liu, Vice President
and General Manager, Global Storage Solution Group of Promise Technology.
For DataCore, the step represents a dramatic turn from Storage Management
toward storage itself, as well as a significant broadening of DataCore's
target market, which has hereto been concentrated on the large scale,
enterprise storage networking segment. "The partnership between Promise and
DataCore is a milestone for the industry and for end-users at all levels,"
said George Teixeira, President and CEO of DataCore. "With Promise delivering
tens of thousands of units a month, and SANmelody Lite in every box, this
amounts to the largest distribution of multi-user external disk subsystems
ever -- at a price literally anyone can afford. The threshold for SANs is
dramatically reduced while the number of iSCSI SANs is increased by several
orders of magnitude. The combined benefits that our joint customers receive
represents an unprecedented, exponential increase in value, one that
perpetually changes the way storage systems are configured."
SANmelody Lite(TM) is an easy-to-install, easy-to-operate software that
enables any Windows PC with a Promise adapter card to serve disk capacity to
other computers over an Ethernet network using the iSCSI standard. It
effectively transforms the machine into a "disk server" that can transparently
allocate capacity to multiple computers. Users can add capacity over the LAN
without the need to reconfigure hardware, open up systems or even reboot
application servers. SANmelody Lite extends the benefits of Promise RAID
technology to multi-user environments while providing a simple upgrade path to
the entire spectrum of SANmelody capabilities.

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