Quantum Sets Sights On Its New Future Focused On Data Protection and Storage Solutions; Concludes Two Decades as a Hard Disk Drive Leader

Business Wire, April 2, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001

Quantum Corporation (NYSE:DSS) today observed a major milestone in the company's evolution as it left its hard disk drive heritage and turned to focus exclusively on its data protection and storage solutions businesses. On March 30, Quantum stockholders approved the merger of the company's hard disk drive business with Maxtor Corporation. Today Quantum concluded its long history as a hard disk drive provider and opened the door to a new era by outlining its strategic direction for the future.

"As the creation of corporate data continues at an unprecedented rate, enterprise customers are struggling to manage and protect that data under increased budget pressures and with limited internal storage resources," said Michael Brown, chairman and CEO of Quantum Corporation. "This presents an incredible opportunity for us to evolve and grow as a company by harnessing our expertise in data protection to bring to market new scalable, integrated storage solutions and services for complex networked business environments."

With approximately $1.4 billion in annual sales and about 3,000 employees around the globe, Quantum is already an established leader in data protection, recognized as the world's top supplier of mid-range tape drives and DLTtape(TM) automation systems. This leadership has enabled the company to generate cash of over $200 million annually, which it has leveraged over the last three years to develop its position as a storage solutions provider. During this time, Quantum has: 1) established category leadership in workgroup network-attached storage (NAS) appliances; 2) begun offering a range of services from storage area network (SAN) consulting to after-sales support; and 3) joined with other industry leaders, such as Network Appliance, VERITAS and Cisco, to offer complete storage networking solutions.

Quantum's current storage solutions include:

-- Workgroup NAS storage appliances: the Snap Server line;

-- Backup appliances (centralized management of remote backup): LANvault(TM);

-- Certified SAN installations;

-- SAN backup for Network Appliance filers (high performance and robust library
sharing);

-- Gigabit Ethernet NAS backup for Network Appliance filers (shared backup
without distance limitations); and

-- Consolidated NAS/SAN backup for mixed storage environments (combines Fibre
Channel and Gigabit Ethernet backup).

Over the last three years, revenue from Quantum's storage solutions businesses has increased tenfold and now approaches nearly a half-billion dollars per year. Going forward, Quantum is looking to play a larger role in the storage solutions arena.

"Becoming more of a storage solutions company is a visionary move for Quantum," said Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corporation. "Storage solutions is a strong $100 billion growth market with many strategic opportunities for leadership. Quantum is now well positioned in the center of this industry."

Quantum has three business groups: the Enterprise Solutions Group, which is largely comprised of Quantum|ATL; the DLTtape Group; and Snap Appliances, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quantum. Through these business groups, Quantum is aggressively pursuing the next steps in its evolution by strengthening its data protection foundation and continuing to broaden its storage solutions offerings. This has been illustrated in the last three months, with the most aggressive set of new product launches in the company's history.

-- Most recently, Quantum's Enterprise Solutions Group began

offering a new consolidated tape library solution that

combines Gigabit Ethernet-based backup of Network Appliance

filers with a Fibre Channel-based solution that protects

servers and/or a redundant array of independent disks (RAIDs)

attached to a SAN. This is designed to allow customers to

protect corporate data on both Network Appliance filers and

application servers with one high-performance,

easy-to-operate, scalable solution.

-- Two weeks ago, Snap Appliances launched the new Snap Server

ES12(TM), a mid-range NAS appliance that is designed to offer

enterprise-class departments and workgroups a cost-effective

alternative to expensive server-class and RAID storage

offerings.

-- In early March, Quantum's DLTtape Group and Compaq announced

broad market availability of backward-read compatible Super

DLTtape(TM) drives. These new drives provide users with nearly

three times the capacity and twice the speed of previous

generation drives, and they can be easily integrated into

existing tape backup environments, offering backward read

compatibility to the huge installed base of DLT 4000, DLT 7000

and DLT 8000 tape drives.

-- In February, Quantum announced it would acquire M4 Data, a

small technology-focused tape automation company. Shortly

thereafter, Quantum's Enterprise Solutions Group began

offering the new M1500 enterprise-class tape library, a truly

modular library providing unparalleled density and the ability