Compaq Announces Industry-Leading Disaster-Tolerant Storage Solutions and
Scalable SANs for the Enterprise
Business/Technology Editors
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 1999--
Company Delivers Third Wave of Solutions Based on its
Enterprise Network Storage Architecture
Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ), the number one storage
supplier in the industry(1), today announced new enterprise storage
area network (SAN) solutions, including the latest in Fibre Channel
switch technology, disaster-tolerant software, and a higher capacity
backup solution. Backed by Compaq Services' global support
organization, these new solutions provide enterprise customers with
more scalable, high availability storage systems with very low total
cost of ownership. With support for heterogeneous platforms and most
major operating systems, Compaq today added unprecedented levels of
performance and scalability in SAN environments for the Windows NT,
Tru64 UNIX, and OpenVMS operating systems. In addition, Compaq
announced the delivery of the highest performing disaster-tolerant
storage solution in the industry.
With today's announcement, Compaq continues to deliver upon the
company's Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA), designed to
make storage a more flexible, shared resource throughout an
enterprise. ENSA is also part of a larger strategy to reduce the
complexity of enterprise computing.
"Today customers are demanding more and more out of their storage
systems as their information needs continue to grow exponentially,"
said Howard Elias, Vice President and General Manager of the Storage
Products Division at Compaq Computer Corporation. "Compaq continues to
provide the best value in storage systems for today's enterprise
environments. In addition to StorageWorks products for all major
server platforms, we are announcing the industry's most comprehensive
and cost-effective SAN solutions with high availability features
normally found only on more expensive proprietary offerings."
"With these new solutions, Compaq is reinforcing its ability to
deliver on its ENSA vision," said John McArthur, Storage Analyst at
International Data Corporation. "The introduction of Fibre Channel
switch technology and peer-to-peer remote copy software are
significant steps in helping customers build SANs right now."
Scalable SANs for Performance and Increased Connectivity
Based on a common architecture, Compaq's StorageWorks Enterprise
Storage Array 12000 (ESA12000) and RAID Array 8000 (RA8000) are
designed for demanding commercial enterprise applications and offer
customers centralized management, high availability, and exceptional
performance and scalability in open systems environments. Today the
systems are available with Fibre Channel switched fabrics, a high-end
solution that extends the architecture with increased performance,
reliability, and enhanced connectivity.
Customers can configure highly scalable SANs with StorageWorks
RA8000 and ESA12000 solutions and new 8- and 16-port Fibre Channel
switches that enable thousands of connections. As the SAN multiplies
in size, its overall performance increases with every 100/MB per
second Fibre Channel device that is added.
Today, the new switches enable customers to create duplicate
sites at distances of up to 10 kilometers between host systems and
storage. The switches also provide enterprise-level SAN management
features such as device and fault isolation, enhanced error reporting,
and diagnostics for high availability.
Prices for a 400 GB switched fabric SAN using a StorageWorks
RA8000 system and a StorageWorks Fibre Channel 8-port switch start at
$105,000. Prices for a 1 TB and 5 TB switched fabric SAN using a
StorageWorks ESA12000 system and a StorageWorks Fibre Channel 16-port
switch start at $192,500 and $738,000 respectively.
Disaster Tolerance at Affordable Prices
In the event of a disaster, customers' businesses can continue
without interruption with the StorageWorks Data Replication Manager
software and switched fabric SANs comprising StorageWorks RA8000 or
ESA12000 systems. This RAID controller-based software replicates
online business-critical data in real time at local and remote sites
for protection and ensures business continuance for the most demanding
applications.
The StorageWorks Data Replication Manager supports synchronous
data replication to ensure data consistency between remote sites--a
key requirement for mission-critical, e-business applications. The
StorageWorks Data Replication Manager software replicates data at
Fibre Channel speeds of 100/MB per second at distances of up to 10
kilometers between sites. Data restoration can take place in seconds
or minutes, where other disaster recovery methods may take days or
even weeks. The StorageWorks Data Replication Manager is available
today for Windows NT with broader operating system support to roll out
over the next two quarters.
At a market-leading low price point, a fully configured
disaster-tolerant configuration that will replicate 1 TB of data
starts at $470,000 for hardware and software.
Enterprise Backup Solution with Higher Capacity and Lower Cost Per
Server
Designed for large-scale Windows NT and NetWare customers running
mission-critical environments, Compaq's Enterprise Backup Solution is
an integrated SAN backup solution comprising hardware from Compaq,
including Fibre Channel host adapters, hubs, tape controllers and SCSI
tape libraries, and software from leading partners.
The solution was designed to meet customers' demanding backup and
restore requirements with high performance and centralized management.
It offers Fibre Channel bandwidth performance of 100/MB per second for
decreased backup windows and an architecture that enables concurrent
backups from multiple servers to single or multiple DLT libraries.
The Enterprise Backup Solution now supports a larger tape library
-- the TL895 -- for increased capacity. The new library supports up to
7 DLT drives and up to 96 cartridges for up to 6.7 TB of data. The
solution also offers higher performance and easier management for
large-scale Windows NT and NetWare environments.
List prices for the Enterprise Backup Solution (including
software) range from $69,000 with the DLT 15 Library Model 35/70 up to
$200,000 with a fully configured TL895 tape library.
Compaq Services for Customers' Entire IT Infrastructure
As enterprises increasingly rely on technology for business
operations, they need to eliminate single points of failure. Compaq's
holistic approach to high availability takes into account the
customer's entire IT environment and engages the customer in a
proactive partnership to ensure the highest levels of system
availability.
Throughout the IT lifecycle, Compaq Services offers service and
support to help customers plan, design, implement and manage storage
as part of their overall computing environment, including systems,
storage and networks. At any point in the lifecycle, customers can
choose Compaq's storage-related consulting and support services, such
as:
-- Site planning and readiness services
-- Infrastructure consulting including facility planning, design,
and construction
-- Hardware and software installation and support services
-- High-availability services including: availability review and
partnership, disaster-tolerant and disaster recovery services
Additionally, through FutureSourcing(SM), Compaq can manage all
or part of customers' computing environments on an outsourced basis,
so that CIOs and IT staffs can focus on core business issues and
future IT needs. Compaq's FutureSourcing services enable customers
whose IT departments are constrained by resources or storage expertise
to access the capabilities of Compaq's experienced service
professionals and a global operations management infrastructure.
Compaq Services will build on its 40 years of experience as a
trusted advisor to provide a comprehensive lifecycle solutions
approach to help customers plan, design, implement and manage their
storage area networks while protecting their current and future IT
investments.
Company Background
Compaq Computer Corporation, a Fortune Global 100 company, is the
second largest computer company in the world and the largest global
supplier of computer systems. Compaq develops and markets hardware,
software, solutions, and services, including industry-leading
enterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical
solutions, enterprise and network storage solutions, commercial
desktop and portable products and consumer PCs. The company is an
industry leader in environmentally friendly programs and business
practices. Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100
countries through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners.
Customer support and information about Compaq and its products are
available at compaq.com.
Compaq, Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Product
names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks
of their respective companies.
(1) See International Data Corporation's "Year in Review, 1998: Disk
Storage Systems."
--30--mp/bos*
CONTACT: Compaq Computer Corporation
Karen Quatromoni, 508-467-4120
karen.quatromoni@compaq.com
or
Shandwick International
Dave Price, 617-351-4183
dprice@shandwick.com
KEYWORD: TEXAS
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS PRODUCT
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