Emulex Announces Support for Microsoft Enterprise Storage Direction; Initiative Adds Management, Performance and High Availability To Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks

Business Wire, March 26, 2001

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 2001

Emulex Corp. (Nasdaq:EMLX), the world's leading supplier of storage networking host bus adapters (HBAs), announced today the development of Fibre Channel device drivers in support of the Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) enterprise storage direction.

The new Microsoft initiative provides additional management, performance and higher availability for Windows Whistler server products and includes Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), StorPort and Multipath I/O for Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs).

The Emulex drivers, which are fully compatible with the company's entire family of LightPulse(R) HBAs, leverage its industry-standard management application programming interface (API) architecture to implement support for the Microsoft features. The large installed base of Emulex HBAs, as well as new installations, may take advantage of its extensive driver capabilities of the Emulex driver software solution.

"Emulex and Microsoft are working together to bring enterprise storage solutions to market," said Jeffrey Goldner, SAN program manager at Microsoft. "Emulex Fibre Channel host bus adapters are an integral component of SAN infrastructures and their drivers enable Windows-based platforms to provide the high availability and robustness that data center customers demand."

Emulex's support of StorPort enables higher performance, reliability and manageability of Fibre Channel HBAs in Windows Whistler server environments. Emulex has also enhanced its drivers to enable SAN management access for Microsoft's WMI client applications.

In addition, Microsoft's Multipath I/O technology offers dynamic multi-pathing and fail-over functionality for Fibre Channel HBAs and attached storage devices, providing the ability to identify and eliminate single points of failure.

"The need for faster data access technologies to support enterprise server applications and scalable SANs is imperative for Windows 2000 and Windows Whistler server environments, and Emulex is pleased to have worked with Microsoft on these developments," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of Worldwide Marketing for Emulex.

"Emulex is committed to providing users with high-performance, solid and well-tested solutions for their business information needs, and our relationship with Microsoft continues to validate our leadership position."

Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters

The Emulex LightPulse family of HBAs provide a unique combination of features required for mission-critical enterprise applications, including full fabric support, high data integrity, full-duplex operation, data buffering for up to 100km of cabling and support for all Fibre Channel topologies.

The company's host bus adapters are also supported by a rich suite of software for storage protocol (SCSI) and network protocol (IP), enabling advanced SAN and network applications. The Emulex Fibre Channel family includes the 2 Gb/s LP9002 family of host bus adapters, LP8000 host adapter and LP850 host bus adapters, the high-performance PCI-based LP7000E and the industry's first digital re-timing hub, the LH5000 series.

For more information about Emulex's Fibre Channel products, visit http://www.emulex.com/fc/index.html.> About Emulex

Emulex is a leading supplier and developer of storage and server networking host bus adapters based on both Fibre Channel and IP networking technologies. Storage networks provide data centers with high-speed, scalable and highly available storage access. Server networks enable the creation of high-performance server clusters for database and transaction processing.

The Emulex LightPulse and Giganet(R) product families are based on internally developed ASIC, firmware and software technologies, and offer customers high performance, scalability, flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership.

The company's products have been selected by the world's leading server and storage providers, including Compaq, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu- Siemens, Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NEC, Network Appliance and Unisys. In addition, Emulex includes industry leaders Brocade, INRANGE, Intel, Legato, McDATA, Microsoft and Veritas, among its strategic partners.

Emulex markets to OEMs and end users through its own worldwide selling organization, as well as its two-tier distribution partners, including ACAL, Avnet, Bell Microproducts, CTC, Info-X, Tech Data and TidalWire. Corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa. News releases and other information about Emulex are available at www.emulex.com.

EMULEX -- We network storage

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. The company wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the following: Emulex's and Giganet's markets are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements, and the combined companies may not be able to respond to such changes on a timely basis; the fibre channel and IP market are at early stages of development; changes in economic conditions or changes in end-user demand for technology solutions, including the possibility of slower than expected growth in demand for Fibre Channel solutions; possible delays in OEM launches of products enabled by the company's solutions or deferrals in orders for the company's solutions by these OEMs; Giganet's VI/IP products remain in the development stage and are subject to significant technical, competitive and market acceptance risks; the ability of Emulex to effectively integrate Giganet's operations into its own; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex's and Giganet's products as well as pricing pressures that may result from such competitive conditions; the combined companies' ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the companies' reliance on third-party suppliers for components used in the companies' products and on manufacturing subcontractors that assemble and distribute the company's products; the companies' reliance on certain OEMs, distributors and key customers; potential losses on strategic business investments; and potential fluctuations in Emulex's future effective tax rate. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q.