INDUSTRY

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- Sistina Software today announced that Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) has joined Sistina's reseller network to deliver affordable, scalable Linux-based clustered solutions to technical computing customers worldwide. With its leading middleware partners, Compaq provides customized Linux "Beowulf" clusters on market-leading,* industry standard ProLiant servers for performance computing and Input/Output (I/O) system performance, system management, security, and resource management. Sistina provides a common I/O architecture with Sistina's Global File System (GFS)™, an enterprise class clustered file system, which provides single file-space capability at local disk speed and the ability for multiple nodes in a cluster to have read/write access to a single file system on a shared SAN device. Together, Sistina and Compaq offer Linux customers an industrial strength compute cluster solution eliminating I/O bottlenecks. [*International Data Corporation, Quarterly Server Tracker, Published 3/8/2002] "By melding together the world's leading Linux-based servers, the Compaq ProLiant server line, with Sistina's Global File System, Compaq and Sistina can offer customers critical features for a number of industrial uses of Linux clusters, at a lower total cost of ownership," said Judy Chavis, director of the Compaq Corporate Linux Program Office. "This integration between Compaq and Sistina provides Linux customers a powerful high performance, high availability architecture which scales to meet industrial strength technical computing applications as well as small business demands." Sistina and Compaq Offer Linux Customers the following Functionality: Efficient Scalability of Servers Scalability up to 256+ nodes No downtime to add new network I/O capacity to cluster Reduces need for re-configuration/re-direction of client Truly Distributed Metadata Efficient Scalability of Storage Allows for online configuration of storage Reduces need for re-allocation of storage after expansion Inherent Failover Capability No need to deport, import, File System Check (FSCK) and remount file systems. Centralized Cluster Management console Hardware brand agnosticism Shared Root File System Integrated Volume Manager "Many high performance technical applications in areas such as Genomics, Oil and Gas, and Parallel Simulations require expensive, often proprietary solutions, to be effective," said Arun Taneja, senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "Through this partnership, Sistina and Compaq are enabling applications in these industries, with lower cost, flexible solutions that are easier to scale along both performance and capacity dimensions." "Sistina's Global File System addresses enterprise needs by simplifying the management of low-cost, scalable storage clusters by leveraging Compaq's powerful but affordable hardware," said Frank Crusing, President & CEO of Sistina. "By combining GFS with Compaq ProLiant servers, already known for their performance, quality and exceptional functionality, Sistina allows Compaq to offer unique technological advantages and simplified management capabilities to Linux customers." Crusing further added that this partnership also allows Compaq Global Services and Sistina to offer a robust range of service offerings to complement the capabilities of this solution. For more information visit www.sistina.com