ADIC Infinite File Life Provides Automatic Data Protection; AMASS Storage Management Software Release Includes Archive Protection Feature

Business Wire, July 11, 2000

Business Editors, Technology Writers

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000

Advanced Digital Information Corporation (Nasdaq:ADIC) announced today the introduction of a new long-term data protection utility called Infinite File Life (IFL) which is included in the latest release of the Company's AMASS for UNIX storage management software.

The new IFL utility helps lower the cost of protecting digital asset archives by automatically migrating files on selected media to new media before data is lost due to age or wear.

AMASS software with Infinite File Life automatically tests media on a user-defined schedule, tracks read/write error rates, and renews the files by writing them to new media. It is designed for use by organizations in a variety of fields that require long-term records retention, including banks, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies, and media companies.

"Protecting critical assets over a long time period is a perennial problem," explained Bill Britts, ADIC executive vice president of sales and marketing. "Even though there are media types that can preserve data for very long times -- 20 to 50 years -- they are very expensive, their capacities haven't kept up with data volume, and they don't solve the problem of how to read data long in the future. Infinite File Life technology solves the long-term data integrity problem intelligently -- by focusing on preserving the information instead of the media itself.

"IFL will let users employ high capacity, affordable tape technology for storing their most important digital assets, safe in the knowledge that the data can be protected, even through future generations of media technology. The IFL technology represents a real advance for the industry, one that we plan to integrate into other ADIC storage management software solutions."

In addition to Infinite File Life, the 4.13 release of AMASS for UNIX also adds expanded Fibre Channel support, compatibility with new AIX and IRIX OS revisions, and support for ADIC's new Scalar 100 mid-range tape library platform.

AMASS for UNIX turns automated tape and optical libraries into high capacity resources for storing and managing enterprise digital assets. It supports manual archive procedures where users place and recall files as they would from a large disk, but it also provides an option for fully automated hierarchical storage management, automatically migrating files between client, server, and automated libraries based on file characteristics (age, size, owner, etc.) and disk capacity. Because it provides access to a wide variety of automated storage libraries through a simple file-system interface, AMASS is widely used for imaging and digital asset management both by end-user IT departments and by storage solution integrators.

About ADIC

With an installed base of more than 60,000 automated libraries, innovative storage management software, Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions, and Network Attach Storage (NAS) appliances, ADIC is a leading device-independent storage solutions provider to the open systems marketplace. The Company offers a broad range of products designed to enhance organizations' ability to store, protect, manage and use their rapidly growing network data. ADIC's automated storage products are available through a worldwide sales force and a global network of resellers and OEMs, including Dell, Fujitsu Siemens and IBM. Further information is available at http://www.adic.com.

ADIC and AMASS are registered trademarks of Advanced Digital Information Corporation. All other products or service marks mentioned in this release should be considered the property of their respective owners.