Industry's Leading Storage Device Vendors Endorse Legato Systems' Gems Initiative

Business Wire, Dec 9, 1996

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1996--Legato Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: LGTO), a leader in the enterprise storage management software market, today announced that a number of leading storage device vendors fully endorse and support Legato's recently introduced GEMS (Global Enterprise Management of Storage) product.

This is the second in a series of announcements for Legato's Java-based storage management product, that provides enterprise-wide command and control for distributed storage. GEMS is a comprehensive solution that leverages the efficiency and performance of Legato's flagship product, NetWorker, coupled with an open architecture. In demonstration of its open approach, the following leading storage device vendors endorse GEMS: ADIC, ATL Products, Inc., Exabyte, Hewlett- Packard, Quantum, and StorageTek.

These industry leading storage device vendors are supporting GEMS because Legato is taking the lead in adding true value to library solutions. Legato's enterprise-class customers will appreciate the many benefits offered by GEMS, including the ability to leverage their hardware investment to its maximum potential. Also, through the use of GEMS, administrators can create, manage and enforce policies that apply to storage hardware and media, as well as benefiting from a consolidated view of all media on the network.

"As the industry's first Java-based storage management solution, GEMS will allow central management of thousands of disparate storage servers from any corporate intranet," said Louis C. Cole, president and CEO of Legato Systems, Inc. "The endorsement of GEMS by these industry leaders demonstrates the open approach Legato has taken. The open architecture of GEMS ensures that customers will be able to globally manage many storage management servers, without losing the flexibility to choose the best storage hardware in the market today," concluded Cole.

"As a supplier of a wide variety of DLT, 4mm and 8mm tape libraries for enterprise environments, ADIC recognizes the complexity of the data and media management problems that our customers face," commented Jonathan Otis, ADIC director of product management. "We enthusiastically welcome Legato's GEMS initiative as a much needed solution."

"ATL welcomes GEMS and will aggressively support its introduction for two important reasons. First, Java-based library administration software from ATL can easily be integrated with GEMS because of its open architecture. In addition, more ATL libraries are used with Legato than with any other data management package," said Frank Berry, director of business development for ATL Products, Inc.

"As storage needs grow, large numbers of Exabyte 8mm tape libraries are being deployed across the enterprise to address automated backup and disaster recovery needs," said Michael Koclanes, vice president of marketing, Exabyte Corporation. "Exabyte supports Legato's effort to provide a comprehensive set of tools to better manage these distributed storage resources."

"HP, as a leading supplier of automated library storage products, is concerned about the complexity of data management," said Dave Morse, marketing manager for HP's Storage Systems Division. "With GEMS, Legato is addressing the diversity of data management needs that have become typical of today's client-server enterprise computing environments."

"Companies today are managing an ever-increasing amount of data, which is being stored at many sites and on many tape drives and libraries. There is a need today to be able to manage all of this data and all of these devices using one common set of tools," said Jerry Kazin, manager software technical marketing, Quantum Specialty Storage Products Group. "GEMS provides a solution to this problem which is why Quantum supports Legato's efforts with GEMS."

"The release of GEMS will further broaden Legato's appeal in the multi-departmental/enterprise arena and offer critical management and policy solutions for the currently installed base," said Dan Oister, channel development manager for Storage Technology Corp. "StorageTek is pleased to see Legato moving in this direction. The large corporations of the world are looking for mainframe-class solutions to their distributed computing challenges. GEMS is a positive step in the right direction."

Pricing and Availability

Version 1.0 of GEMS will be available in the second quarter of 1997 to selected customers. Pricing will be available at that time.

Background on Legato Systems

Legato Systems, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, develops, markets and supports network storage management software products for heterogeneous client/server computing environments. Legato is a technology leader in the network storage management software market because of the heterogeneity, scalability, performance and ease of use of its software products. The Company's flagship software product, NetWorker, supports many storage management server platforms and can accommodate a variety of clients, servers and storage devices. Legato's long-term strategy is to create an integrated set of solutions centered around storage management that enhance and simplify network computing as a whole. -0-