The Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology Deploys StoreAges SVMTM to Manage its Campus-wide Storage Facilities

StoreAge Networking Technologies, the leading storage virtualization company, has announced today the campus-wide deployment of its SVM (Storage Virtualization Manager) by the Technion, Israels most prestigious technological institute and one of the worlds leading technological organizations.

Haifa, Israel, January 22, 2002 - StoreAge Networking Technologies, the leading storage virtualization company, has announced today the campus-wide deployment of its SVM (Storage Virtualization Manager) by the Technion, Israels most prestigious technological institute and one of the worlds leading technological organizations. StoreAges SVM manages the Technions storage in a multi-applications, multi-platform environment. The installation was achieved in cooperation with IBM, the world's largest information technology company; Gadzoox Networks, an expert in SANs and provider of Fibre Channel switches; and SANcastle®, a leading manufacturer of multi-protocol switches for integrating Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet networks.

StoreAge is a technology leader in storage virtualization using an asymmetric (off the data path) design implemented through a SAN appliance approach. The company provides effective storage management solutions for large Storage Area Networks (SAN) in a heterogeneous, multiple-server environment. Its SVM provides for the virtualization of the entire SAN space enabling enterprises utilizing SAN architecture to efficiently manage and allocate their storage resources. The SVM provides a central point of storage management for highly scalable SANs, maintaining the full fabric data transfer bandwidth, and enables an easy migration from traditional SANs to fully virtualized environment with the resulting TCO benefits. The SVM platform supports a host of Storage Applications which further enhance the effectiveness of the solution and are key enablers for meeting such user needs as zero-time, server free and LAN free backup, implementation of disaster recovery strategies and the like.    

StoreAges SVM has been deployed at the Technion for the past eighteen months. During the first six months, the Technion served as a Beta site. As the solution proved extremely successful in terms of its scalability and high availability, it was subsequently deployed in the Technions strategic production systems. Currently, the SVM manages the storage needs of the Technions Computer Center in a heterogeneous environment that includes W2K, Solaris®, central Novell® cluster and Linux® servers for the deployment of IBM® high performance and high availability FAStT200 Raid storage devices. Among these are a video server, a central e-mail server and more. At the next stage, these Fibre Channel SAN islands will be interconnected using storage over IP technology with Sancastles GFS-8TM multi-protocol switch and StoreAge's remote mirroring software in order to create a complete Disaster Recovery solution where each disk device is replicated at multiple sites. In this manner, several Technion departments are collaborating in order to create a common Disaster Recovery strategy and implementation.

Rina Shachar, Director of the Technion Computer Center, noted: About two years ago, we started to deploy StoreAges SVM. At the time, we were quite concerned about the installation, since the Computer Centers systems serve all of the Technions critical organizational systems. However, we were very pleased with the SVMs performance and therefore recommended other Technion departments to implement this solution as well. We are satisfied with the SVMs performance, its stability, scalability and the flexibility that it enables. We continue to work in cooperation with StoreAge to implement new applications and expand the system. We recommend the SVM for deployment in other departments of the Technion, as well as for other organizations seeking a truly valuable storage solution."

Dani Naor, Director of Business Development at StoreAge, commented: We are proud to have our SVM deployed by one of the worlds top technological institutes. StoreAges out-of- the-data path virtualization, snapshot and disaster recovery software provides the Technion a very high-end storage solution at a fraction of the cost of other alternatives. This installation is yet another confirmation that our technology successfully meets the challenging requirements in a heterogeneous, multi-application and multi storage subsystem environment."

"We are very pleased that StoreAge has succeeded in extending the capabilities of the IBM FASTt200 in this project," said Uri Kedem, Storage Group IBM Israel. "Requirements for disaster recovery applications are dramatically increased these days and the combination installed makes it a proper solution."

Gadzoox Networks has focused on working with companies like StoreAge to ensure customers can install and deploy heterogeneous SANs that offer new technology and robust features easily and seamlessly," said Erik Ottem, senior director of sales for Gadzoox Networks. The Technion SAN deployment is clearly a proof point that these partnerships work and that heterogeneous SANs can achieve high availability, scalability and flexibility while reducing overall storage costs."

Zeev Becker, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations at SANcastle, stated: SANcastle is very pleased to be a part of this Disaster Recovery solution. StoreAge has solved the challenge of unifying multiple technologies so that todays enterprises can have a critical, efficient Disaster Recovery plan."

About StoreAge Networking Technologies:
StoreAge Networking Technologies (www.store-age.com) is a privately held company founded in 1999 as a spin-off from IIS Intelligent Information Systems (NASDAQ: IISL) and since then obtained over $28 million of equity investment from major strategic as well as leading financial groups. The Company has offices in Irvine, California and Nesher, Israel, as well as strategic partners in several European and Far East countries. StoreAge develops and provides innovative storage technology and products with a focus on Storage Area Network (SAN) architecture. StoreAge is a technology leader in storage virtualization using an asymmetric design implemented through a SAN appliance approach. StoreAge has strategic alliances and OEM partnerships with the industrys leading companies, and seeks to increase and expand its cooperation with major OEM partners, storage systems integrators and storage service providers in order to deliver advanced storage solutions to the enterprise market.
StoreAge is a voting member of both the US and the European Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and of SNIA's IP Storage Forum.
For additional information about StoreAge Networking Technologies, visit our web site at www.store-age.com

About IBM:
IBM (NYSE: IBM) is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM is the number one server vendor in the world. IBM supports more than a dozen key industries worldwide, works with companies of all sizes around the world to deploy the full range of IBM technologies.
The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM homepage at http://www.ibm.com
About the IBM FASt200 Storage Server:                                        
A cost-effective storage solution. The IBM FAStT200 Storage Server provides flexible, affordable storage. The FAStT200 is designed for workgroup and departmental servers that require an     external storage solution. The single controller model provides a cost-effective solution, while the FAStT200 High Availability (HA) model features a fully redundant configuration with dual-active controllers.        
                                                                                

About Gadzoox Networks:
Gadzoox Networks (NASDAQ: ZOOX), the first company to announce and demonstrate 2Gb Open Fabric switch technology, offers value-leading Storage Area Network (SAN) products that enable the deployment of high availability clusters, advanced backup solutions, and storage consolidation strategies. The Slingshot Family of 2Gb Open Fabric switches and the Capellix Family of 1Gb Loop switches facilitate continuous access to data, disaster recovery solutions, faster and more reliable backups, and the reduction of storage management expenses. Gadzoox Networks is a voting member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), with corporate headquarters located at 5850 Hellyer Avenue in San Jose, California. For more information about Gadzoox Networks' products and technology advancements in the SAN industry, visit the company's Web site at www.gadzoox.com

About SANcastle:    
SANcastle Technologies, Inc., is a privately held, Silicon Valley based, manufacturer of multi-protocol switches for integrating Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet networks. Founded in 1998, SANcastle enables enterprises to perform business applications by creating a global fabric that seamlessly connects disparate networks regardless of the infrastructure environments and without disruption or technology changes. SANcastle has facilities in Israel and the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, as well as its San Jose, California headquarters. For more information, call 408-573-4200 or visit the website at www.sancastle.com
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