AppIQ and HP Form Alliance to Dramatically Simplify Storage Management

Business Wire, March 1, 2005

BURLINGTON, Mass. and PALO ALTO, Calif. -- AppIQ Technology to be Delivered as Component of HP Strategy to Unify Server and Storage Management

AppIQ(TM), Inc., a leading provider of software solutions that enable data storage to be managed as a business-focused IT utility, and HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) today announced an alliance to provide customers with a breakthrough solution for managing heterogeneous storage.

As part of a long-term original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and joint development agreement, AppIQ and HP will invest in joint product development, marketing, and services delivery. HP will make AppIQ StorageAuthority(R) Suite, AppIQ's multi-vendor storage resource management (SRM) and storage area network (SAN) management product family, available as HP Storage Essentials, a key component of HP's strategy to unify server and storage management.

"This partnership makes sense on a lot of fronts. For AppIQ, it's another major technology endorsement as well as a critical piece of their OEM strategy. For HP, this partnership delivers a key component of its unified infrastructure management strategy, since it can now offer a best-in-class storage area management solution that's a great technical fit with its existing server management platform," said Steve Duplessie, Founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "AppIQ has secured its biggest worldwide distribution, service, and support channel to date, which is key to its go-to-market strategy. It's also good that the companies share a common strategic vision, with AppIQ's storage utility message and HP's Adaptive Enterprise message both focused on making IT more responsive to business needs."

"This OEM and development alliance with HP is a tremendous win for us, and continues our rapid ascent as the de facto standard for management of data storage infrastructure," said David Lemont, president and CEO, AppIQ. "Delivering our technology as part of HP's unified infrastructure management strategy will extend AppIQ's reach into new markets. We have the industry's leading SAN management, SRM, and provisioning technology and the strongest distribution channels, and we look forward to leveraging these strengths to extend our leadership in storage area management."

The AppIQ and HP alliance provides the first storage offering to integrate into HP Systems Insight Manager, the software foundation of HP's unified server-storage management strategy. HP Systems Insight Manager, downloadable from hp.com, is simple to install and is provided at no cost with HP servers and storage. It enables basic server and storage management functions and supports an open architecture that enables the inclusion of value-add technologies such as third-party offerings. In addition, it offers comprehensive integrations into HP OpenView, HP's complete portfolio of service-driven management software.

"HP has a proven, successful record of storage OEM partnering. Our alliance with AppIQ is enabling us to accelerate our delivery of products that support our unified storage-server management strategy," said Frank Harbist, vice president of the StorageWorks Software Division at HP. "With this strategy, HP is bridging the islands of management to simplify administration and enable collaboration without compromising control. Our unified server and storage management solutions will meet the needs of the Adaptive Enterprise by ensuring the availability of server and storage resources, while reducing the costs and complexity associated with managing these resources."

HP Storage Essentials, Powered by AppIQ, is expected to be available later this month through HP and its worldwide partners. More information is available at http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/highlights/02242005.html.> About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2005, HP revenue totaled $81.8 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

About AppIQ

AppIQ(TM), Inc. is a leading provider of open Storage Area Network (SAN) management and Storage Resource Management (SRM) solutions. Customers worldwide in almost every industry rely on AppIQ software to simplify the management of storage infrastructure, reduce operational costs, and synchronize IT resources with business needs. AppIQ StorageAuthority(R) Suite and "Powered by AppIQ" solutions are "Enabling the storage utility"(TM) for today's data-intensive enterprise by seamlessly integrating storage resource visualization, provisioning, monitoring, reporting, and policy-based automation, and by correlating the availability of business-critical applications with SAN configuration, capacity, and performance. AppIQ products are sold across all continents through strategic OEM partners Engenio, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, SGI, and Sun Microsystems, and a global network of resellers. AppIQ is based in Burlington, MA, USA. For more information, visit www.appiq.com.