NETEX CHALLENGES FIBRE CHANNEL OVER IP WITH
LAUNCH OF HYPERIP DRO DATA REPLICATION OPTIMIZER

HyperIP DRO, the alternative to FC over IP technologies, enables remote data replication, eliminates performance, cost, compliance and complexity issues

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., May 24, 2005 — NetEx, the worldwide leader in high performance data transport solutions, announced the release of HyperIP DRO, the industry’s first Data Replication Optimizer (DRO), enabling maximum data replication acceleration over existing IP networks and providing an alternative to Fibre Channel over IP technologies.

HyperIP eliminates the inefficiencies of traditional TCP/IP-based networks by accelerating leading data replication applications critical to supporting business continuity and disaster recovery compliance and ensuring these applications are consistently completed on time. Data replication optimization substantially improves end-to-end performance and minimizes the risk of non-compliance, compared with costly and complex Fibre Channel WAN products. HyperIP works with leading data replication application vendors, including VERITAS, EMC and NetApp, to deliver throughput boosts ranging from 300 to 1000 percent depending on the application.

Fibre Channel-based WAN technologies increase complexity, requiring additional hardware, a separate network to manage, an executive-approved plan for implementation, and increased management time, and/or an increase in IT staffing. All of these lead to substantially higher costs. HyperIP DRO installs as a simple appliance that easily attaches to an existing IP infrastructure and requires no changes to applications or code upgrades to network devices.

HyperIP DRO brings the most complete suite of tested, qualified and vendor-approved data replication applications in the industry. HyperIP DRO ensures that data replication applications are consistently completed on time between distributed servers and/or storage controllers for compliant disaster recovery applications. No other IP-based data replication product offers comparable application performance, bandwidth conservation and end-to-end throughput than HyperIP DRO. For enterprises choosing iSCSI or TCP-based remote replication, HyperIP DRO benefits these applications by accelerating data replication over any distance, improving link utilization and shielding against the effects of packet loss.

“Speed, volume and cost are the main factors in data replication for the corporate data center,” said Steven J. Schuchart Jr., senior analyst for Current Analysis. “Additionally, the issue of business continuity, disaster recovery and compliance with government regulations is gaining importance throughout the enterprise, and reducing the data replication time window is one way to ease the issues surrounding these business problems. Operational cost savings resulting from improved data replication performance over existing IP infrastructure can help companies ease the pain of compliance.”

“HyperIP DRO Data Replication Optimizer was created to maximize available IP bandwidth by delivering substantial performance gains for industry-leading data replication applications,” said Robert MacIntyre, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at NetEx. “DRO is the easy way to increase business efficiency while safeguarding valuable corporate information and it eliminates the need to implement costly and complex Fibre Channel over IP technologies.”

Industry research shows that customers expect a measurable payback period for their information technology investments. HyperIP delivers an aggressive payback, and customers can better utilize their current IP infrastructure and support resources, which save money by deferring additional bandwidth, staffing and equipment.

Addressing IP data replication with new management features
HyperIP DRO continues NetEx’s tradition of providing robust, high performance acceleration appliances and delivers improved management features including:

• Time-of-day rate limiting to optimize the bandwidth for applications
• Performance graphs for detailed hourly, daily and monthly traffic analysis
• Transport tuning facility that optimizes storage traffic for networks with high packet loss
• Advanced management tools that calculate the current link capacity and available capacity, and logging of TCP and UDP connection statistics
• Enhanced management functions including: utilities, diagnostic aids, network status display and traffic flow, configuration and operational status

HyperIP DRO delivers award -winning performance for the most complete suite of tested, qualified, and vendor-approved data replication applications in the industry. HyperIP DRO is qualified with industry-leading data replication products such as: EMC SRDF Adaptive Copy and SRDF/A on Gigabit Ethernet Directors, Network Appliance SnapMirror and SnapVault, Veritas Volume Replicator and Replicator Exec, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Microsoft Exchange NetBIOS, Oracle DataGuard and DB Rsync, NSI Double-Take, Maranti CoreStor Replication and industry-standard FTP.

Pricing and availability
HyperIP DRO is available immediately with a MSRP of approximately $20,000 U.S.

About NetEx
Formed in 1999 as a spin-off of Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek®), privately-held NetEx has provided the world's fastest data transport in the industry, along with guaranteed data delivery, for over 20 years to more than 100 of the world's largest and most sophisticated organizations, including some of the most prestigious providers of financial, transportation and telecommunications services and government entities. Customers include Telstra, NTT, Verizon, BellSouth, Qwest, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, LloydsTSB, NDC Health, IRS, American, Lufthansa, Northwest, United Airlines and Kellogg. For more information about NetEx, NetEx/IP or HyperIP, visit www.netex.com or call +1 763-694-4300.

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NetEx is a registered trademark; NetEx/IP and HyperIP are trademarks of NetEx. All other trademarks herein are the property of their respective owners.