Compaq Extends Enterprise Storage Leadership with New Services

Business Wire, August 9, 1999

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 9, 1999--

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ), the number one storage provider in the industry(1), today announced a complete range of Storage Services to help customers implement multi-vendor storage area network (SAN) solutions based on the highly acclaimed Compaq Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA). A team of dedicated storage solutions architects is now available to deploy the new storage architecture, ensuring that large, mission-critical applications operate without interruption. These new Storage Services and ENSA-based solutions are central to Compaq's overall NonStop(R) eBusiness strategy for enterprise computing.

The new services include a full suite of lifecycle services to help customers plan, design, implement, and manage SANs across the enterprise, new migration services for customers who want to deploy SANs for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system, and high availability services for customers with mission-critical applications. Compaq is the first company to deliver storage solutions that scale to meet a range of customers from small and medium sized companies to large enterprises with complex, global IT environments.

"With our highly experienced, global team of service professionals, Compaq is making it easy and safe for customers to implement a storage area network, guiding them on the entire journey at the pace they require," said Robert Daigneault, Vice President of NonStop(R) eBusiness Infrastructure Services, Compaq Enterprise Solutions and Services Group. "Our holistic enterprise lifecycle solutions approach ensures that customers can implement their storage resources in a manner that optimizes their overall IT infrastructure and helps them maintain a competitive edge. Compaq stands alone in offering the industry's most comprehensive SAN storage solutions."

DIRECTV relies on Compaq Services to design, implement, support, and manage its billing and customer service systems and networks. With more than 70 terabytes of data and growing daily, DIRECTV has one of the largest databases in the world to serve more than five million customers in the United States. "The combination of Compaq Systems, StorageWorks, and Services gives us reliability, a single point of contact, and a partnership that covers our entire computing environment," said Mark Schubert, Vice President, Information Technology, DIRECTV. "We will continue to work with Compaq to assess the use of its ENSA-based products for the billing center operation. We trust that Compaq's technology and delivery services expertise will provide the best solution for us."

Enterprise Services

Compaq offers a suite of storage solutions to help customers in large enterprises plan, design, implement, and manage SANs. The services will help customers satisfy their storage infrastructure needs relative to the overall IT environment; assess their current storage priorities; develop a storage architecture and adoption strategy; and manage the deployment of a SAN-based enterprise storage infrastructure. The services include:

-- Enterprise Storage Solutions Workshop in which Compaq Services works with customers' senior management to analyze storage needs and priorities within the context of their overall IT infrastructure and business requirements.

-- Enterprise Storage Solutions Assessment to help clients determine if storage infrastructure and management practices are optimized to serve the business requirements, and to identify potential areas for improvement.

-- Enterprise Storage Solutions Architecture to create a blueprint detailing a customer's storage needs in the context of their overall IT infrastructure.

-- Enterprise Storage Solutions Design to provide a detailed design and implementation plan for the adoption of a dynamic storage infrastructure that will reduce the overall cost of ownership.

-- Enterprise Storage Solutions Implementation provides real-world deployments of enterprise storage infrastructures.

Compaq also offers FutureSourcing(SM) services through which it can manage customers' entire storage operations on an outsourced basis so customers can concentrate their own resources on their core strategic business areas.

Support and Availability Services

Compaq today is also introducing services specifically designed to help customers implement SANs for Windows NT environments and to optimally configure their storage systems.

These include:

-- SAN Migration Services for Windows NT provides consolidation of a customer's current storage equipment into a SAN environment. With this service, Compaq is supporting the deployment of SANs into Windows NT environments, expanding on its status as the industry leader in integrating and supporting Microsoft Windows NT technology. Windows NT is predicted to be the fastest-growing segment of the SAN market.

-- RAID StorageSet Configuration Services, which provides a set of fixed-price packages for customers who need assistance in designing, creating, and configuring RAID Sets and Shadow Sets at time of installation, as well as setting up Compaq's StorageWorks Command Console.