OnStream Ranks No. 1 in PC Data Tape Drive Vendor Report; Study Shows OnStream Accounted for More Unit Growth Compared to a Year Ago Than All Other Tape Drive Vendors

Business Wire, Dec 21, 2000

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 2000

OnStream(TM) Inc. achieved a higher unit growth rate than all other tape drive vendors, according to a recent PC Data report.

The company had a 41 percent unit growth in the first three quarters of this year over the first three quarters of last year.

OnStream's success is due to its products' blend of high capacity and affordability that is ideal for individuals and businesses that need to back up small servers, workstations and power desktops. OnStream drives are powered by ADR(TM) (Advanced Digital Recording), a variable-speed tape technology that provides high reliability and an extensive roadmap. More than 11,000 VARs offer the OnStream Echo(TM) and ADR product lines.

"OnStream is in an ideal position to fulfill the growing storage needs of PCs, workstations and entry-level servers," said Bob Amatruda, research manager, IDC. "ADR tape technology is a viable alternative to DDS and Travan, which currently dominate the sub-$1,000 tape drive market."

The PC Data report detailed the total tape drive sales in the United States distribution channel from January 1999 through September 2000 and included incumbent tape drive vendors Hewlett-Packard, Exabyte and Seagate. OnStream's percentage growth in tape drive sales in the first three quarters of the year compared to the first three quarters of last year was greater than all other vendors.

"With the legacy Travan and DAT technologies reaching the end of their lifecycles, customers want to replace their drives without having to buy a DLT drive that costs more than the server it is backing up," said Kim Sparks, director of marketing, OnStream.

"Up until recently, VARs were forced to sacrifice reliability, performance or capacity in order to reach an affordable server-to-backup price ratio. ADR technology allows resellers to boost system sales and margins by bringing server to backup price ratios back in line."

Advanced Digital Recording is a digital tape storage solution based on an eight-channel array that allows the solid-state design to read and write eight tracks of data simultaneously. The result is a reliability specification of only one unreadable bit in every 10(19) bits recorded -- 10,000 times greater than that of a DAT drive.

OnStream's ADR line of digital tape drives provides small businesses an extraordinary low price-to-capacity ratio for tape devices in the small server backup market. Starting at $699, the drives provide 50 gigabytes(a) of capacity and compressed transfer rates of 4MB/s and support server software for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95, 98, 2000 and NT; Novell(R) NetWare; SCO(R) OpenServer(TM) and UnixWare(R); Linux(R); Mac(R) OS and others.

Designed for the backup needs of individuals and small-business users with power desktops, workstations and small servers, OnStream's Echo line combines the high capacity and low cost per gigabyte of a tape drive with the simplicity of drag-and-drop operations and drive letter access associated with removable storage devices.

Starting at an approximate street price of $199 (U.S.), OnStream Echo drives offer 30 gigabytes(a) of capacity and transfer rates up to 2MB/s in the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95, 98, NT and 2000, and Mac(R) OS environments.

About OnStream

OnStream Inc. was incorporated in 1998 to deliver affordable high-capacity storage products for entry-level servers, workstations and power desktops. The privately owned, Colorado- and Netherlands-based company was formed through a spin-off from Philips Electronics.

Powered by its patented Advanced Digital Recording (ADR) technology, OnStream's products offer up to 50 gigabytes of capacity and target the growing need for solutions that can deliver superior reliability and a unique blend of capacity, performance and convenience -- all at prices that make sense for today's power users, small businesses and IT professionals. More information can be found at www.onstream.com.

(a) Where 1GB = 1 billion bytes. All capacities mentioned assume 2:1 compression. Capacity and performance will vary with file types and system configuration.

Note to Editors: OnStream, ADR, OnStream Echo, the OnStream logo and ADR logo are trademarks of OnStream Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.