NetEx Unveils HyperSHIELD System for Fast, Encrypted Data Replication; "Accelerates and Protects'' Replication on the WAN

Partnership creates industry's only system dedicated to accelerating and protecting "data in motion" from leading storage replication vendors.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Oct. 31, 2005 -- NetEx, the worldwide leader in high performance data transport solutions, today announced HyperSHIELD(TM), an affordable replication "Data in Motion" system for use with existing IP networks that moves and encrypts data over the WAN at up to OC12 speeds. The new NetEx system was previewed at Storage Networking World (SNW) Fall 2005, where it impressed attendees with enterprise-class security and compliance advantages.

HyperSHIELD is the industry's only secure migration optimizer dedicated to accelerating and protecting industry-leading replication applications from EMC, NetApp, Symantec, Oracle and others. By joining forces with CipherOptics, the leader in Protecting Data in Motion(TM), NetEx now provides high-performance data encryption capability along with its patent-pending acceleration technology to create a truly unique system. The combined offering delivers both data replication acceleration and data encryption, which significantly minimizes the time required to replicate (or move) large amounts of information securely between corporate data centers. NetEx's HyperIP and CipherOptics' family of data protection gateways are based on native Gigabit Ethernet and IP, eliminating the complexity and expense of FC over IP WAN technologies, while providing significantly higher performance.

"SNW offered an excellent venue to preview the combined application acceleration and security capabilities of NetEx to a dedicated audience of storage IT managers and professionals who are looking for a simple, affordable solution to the problems of data replication," said Robert MacIntyre, Vice President Business of Development and Marketing at NetEx. "Combined with CipherOptics, the HyperSHIELD system provides robust AES encryption and low network latency to create the world's highest performance secure replication optimization platform.  It delivers improved performance and security for business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) applications to meet today's data throughput requirements without having to purchase additional bandwidth and equipment associated with other non-enhanced solutions."

"Our customers are turning more and more to high-performance data replication for business continuity and disaster recovery, not to mention regulatory compliance," said Ron Willis, President and CEO, CipherOptics. "By combining acceleration and security into a streamlined system, CipherOptics and NetEx are making it easier for organizations to securely replicate their data, without sacrificing performance or cost effectiveness."

NetEx's HyperSHIELD system provides the following benefits to industry-leading remote data replication applications:

-- 3X to 10X increase in effective data throughput

-- 60 to 90 percent bandwidth reduction

-- Full Ethernet wire-rate data encryption performance

-- Eliminates network latency for supporting secure data replication applications

-- Conditions the WAN and shields the application from network disruptions

-- Offloads WAN management from the application server or storage controller

-- Rate Control (QoS) features to protect and enable effective bandwidth sharing

-- Application aggregation to assist with implementing ILM strategies

-- Enables consistent and predictable performance for replication applications

-- Makes BC/DR affordable for both the mid-tier and enterprise organizations

NetEx's HyperSHIELD system brings the most complete suite of tested, qualified and vendor-approved data replication applications in the industry. HyperIP and CipherOptics data protection gateways ensure that secure data replication applications are consistently completed on time between distributed servers and/or storage controllers for security-compliant disaster recovery applications. No other IP-based data replication system offers comparable application performance, bandwidth conservation and end-to-end throughput than HyperIP and the CipherOptics gateways. For enterprises choosing iSCSI or TCP-based remote applications, HyperIP and CipherOptics gateways benefit these applications by accelerating and protecting data replication over any distance, improving link utilization and shielding the application against the negative effects of packet loss.

About CipherOptics
CipherOptics, the leading innovator of high-speed data protection gateways, protects data in motion as it travels over IP networks. With virtually no latency and robust industry-standard AES encryption capabilities, CipherOptics data protection gateways outperform router and firewall add-on solutions in total cost of ownership, performance, network transparency and ease of implementation.

The CipherOptics family of data protection gateways is field-proven in some of the most security-conscious networks in the world, and has received FIPS-140-2 Level 2 validation. CipherOptics enables financial institutions, global enterprises and government agencies to secure all data in motion while maintaining full network capability and performance at a very low total cost of ownership. For more information about CipherOptics visit the company website at www.cipheroptics.com or call +1 919-865-7330.

About NetEx
Formed in 1999 as a spin-off of Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek(R), now SUN Microsystems), privately-held NetEx has provided the world's fastest data transport in the industry, along with guaranteed data delivery, for over 20 years. NetEx is proud to provide its award-winning solutions 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. Some of NetEx customers include AG Edwards, Bank of America, BellSouth, BP, Broadview Networks, IRS, Kellogg, Lincoln Financial, LloydsTSB, Mellon Bank, Northwest Airlines, NTT, New York Health and Hospitals, OCLC, Qwest, QVC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), SunTrust, Telstra, Union Pacific Railroad, United Airlines, US Bank and Verizon. For more information about NetEx, NetEx/IP or HyperIP, visit www.netex.com or call +1 763-694-4300.

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