Gresham brings SAN to Windows NT; Enterprise DistribuTAPE Network Edition Adds SAN support on Microsoft Windows Platforms

Business Wire, July 11, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000

Gresham Enterprise Storage (GES), www.greshamstorage.com, today announced the release of a new version of their SAN enabled Enterprise DistribuTAPE(tm) (EDT) software, which adds support for Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) on Windows NT and Windows 2000 platforms. EDT for NT is specifically designed to connect Tivoli Storage Manager servers to StorageTek tape libraries. Whether attached to mainframe system or UNIX servers, Lib Station or ACSLS managed libraries can consolidate storage management of tape drives and media.

Most end user systems include both UNIX and Windows NT based servers. One of the major advantages of Gresham's EDT is the ability to share the tape storage resources between servers in a heterogeneous environment.

Another advantage of EDT is the ability to bridge the gap between open systems and mainframes. The mainframe world is becoming the platform of choice for open systems backup as open systems data managers realize the stability of mainframe practices. Enterprise DistribuTAPE allows open systems to back up their data to mainframe-attached libraries and tape drives, freeing open systems of the burden of media management.

"We developed EDT for NT to support the rising number of customers who are using the NT operating system as a platform for their Tivoli Storage Management (TSM) systems. EDT for Windows NT provides users with the opportunity to upgrade existing Silos with the latest drive technology and develop a centralized media management strategy," said John McIntosh, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for GES. "As acceptance and deployment of NT servers grows over time, Gresham will be there to support that deployment. Distributed, open systems media management has proven to be awkward in even the best implementations. By consolidating media management onto a single, proven media management system, users see a great benefit in costs and the utilization of operations people at any organization."

The most significant benefit of open systems support from EDT is that users can share drives and media, either directly connected, or over a fibre channel SAN. EDT provides the capability to backup open systems data from multiple TSM servers to centralized StorageTek Libraries. This dramatically enhances the value of the library investment and provides highly reliable and available device capability at a fraction of the cost of distributed, open systems management practices.

About Gresham Enterprise Storage

Gresham Enterprise Storage (GES) is unique in its focus on bringing together all elements of the storage management puzzle. GES is a software engineering and services company focusing on the integration of storage devices, storage subsystems, fibre channel and storage networking technologies.

Gresham's highly skilled team of open systems storage professionals possesses system I/O and device driver level expertise, experience in SAN implementation, leading-edge knowledge of the major backup applications, in-depth automated library skills, and practical knowledge of best practices for storage management in complex, heterogeneous enterprise networks. In order to integrate these skills, GES addresses three markets -- large end users, storage vendors, and system vendors. Gresham's experience in storage-intensive applications, leading-edge deployment of SAN technology, and high-performance network backup design are unparalleled in the industry.

GES is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For information about end-user products and services, please contact Gresham Sales at 612/891-2867. For information on OEM integration services, call 512/450-0900, or visit our website at www.greshamstorage.com.