LOUISVILLE, CO -- StorageTek(R) (Storage Technology Corp.) (NYSE: STK) took a major step in providing customers with security and flexibility they need to meet their business continuity needs. StorageTek has released the Clustered VTSS, a business continuity enhancement for its intelligent Virtual Storage Manager(TM) (VSM(TM)) system. StorageTek, a leader in virtual storage since 1994, is broadening its business continuity offerings by introducing another major enhancement to VSM. Customers are now able to enjoy the benefits of virtual technology in the business continuity arena for not only mirrored tape volumes in a single or separate library, but also for mirrored virtual volumes resident on separate disk buffers. "With the addition of Clustered VTSS to StorageTek's Virtual Storage Manager, BB-DATA now has a much more disaster tolerant operation," said Dirk Krause, BB-DATA hardware planner. "We can rest assured that if BB-DATA were to experience an outage, the time to restore data would be virtually instantaneous, minimizing the impact to our customers and our business operations." "The introduction of Clustered VTSS is another significant step by StorageTek in response to customer requirements for data security and integrity against a variety of disaster scenarios," said Gary Francis, StorageTek corporate vice president and general manager, Automated Tape Solutions. "Clustered VTSS allows customers to incorporate the benefits of virtual storage in their business continuity plans to improve data recovery time while reducing overhead." The scalability, flexibility, and ease of storage management found in the VSM have been extended to address the disaster recovery and business continuity issues faced by customers today. Such benefits include: -- Buffer to buffer data transfer. Electronic data transfer between disk buffers provides fast backup and recovery. -- Migration engine. The secondary VTSS can be used for migration tasks while the primary VTSS can be devoted to production tasks. -- Multiple copies. Clustered VTSS can move copies to multiple libraries in addition to a second disk buffer providing added data security. -- Recovery management. VSM's advanced software management policies can be applied to business continuance activities. Cost effective utilization can be realized by clustering only that data vital to business continuity. StorageTek has addressed the problem of inefficient use of tape media and transports with its VSM since 1998. VSM resolves these inefficiencies by storing virtual tape volumes on a disk buffer, allowing for nearly instantaneous recall. VSM then manages the volumes by migrating selected virtual tape volumes to real tape volumes in a Nearline(R) automated solution. The use of a disk buffer combined with virtual tape technology allows VSM to optimize access time by recalling, at electronic speeds, tape volumes stored on disk. With Clustered VTSS, the advantages of near instantaneous tape data recall can be applied in disaster recovery and business continuity activities. Advanced management policies and the efficient use of tape and drive resources make VSM an economically sound solution for ensuring business data integrity and availability. For additional information visit www.storagetek.com