SYSTEMS

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced Sun StorEdge(TM) Enterprise Storage Manager (ESM) software for Storage Area Network (SAN) management. Designed to help lower customers' storage TCO, the new software provides a centralized management platform for viewing and managing storage environments. The "single pane of glass" incorporates the core management services of SAN topology reporting, device configuration, and proactive health monitoring and diagnostics -- helping Sun's customers increase uptime and improve service levels. With the introduction of ESM, Sun is delivering a comprehensive storage management software portfolios in the industry, encompassing SAN and systems management, data continuance, and file and volume management. As the industry's first system vendor to deliver a Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM)-compliant SAN management platform, Sun is demonstrating its leadership in delivering on the demand for simplified SAN management. Unlike proprietary Application Program Interface (API) exchanges conducted by some vendors, standards compliance will enable customers to quickly and easily leverage new storage technologies, products and solutions as they emerge from Sun and other vendors. "Customers are demanding simpler, integrated and open storage management and Sun is delivering on those demands," said James Staten, director of Network Storage, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Sun's new StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager software combines the three most common storage management tasks into a single pane of glass. By integrating these functions, our customers will see real savings in administration costs and greater uptime as health problems discovered by the diagnostic expert can be acted on immediately without changing tools." The new Sun StorEdge ESM software is based on the Storage One strategy and is built on the Sun(TM) Open Net Environment (Sun ONE). The new software also serves as a key element to Sun's fully integrated, open SAN architecture. Sun has been instrumental in advancing the open WBEM/CIM-based standards for storage management. Working side by side with best-of-breed storage partners like Hitachi Data Systems, Qlogic and Brocade, Sun has achieved a new level of interoperability designed to provide customers with ease of deployment and increased manageability, supportability and scalability. "Open standards are imperative in order to give users the ability to get chaotic environments under control. Sun is the first major player to deliver on the promise of those standards," said Steve Kenniston, analyst with Enterprise Storage Group. The new software is available for the Solaris Operating Environment and is accessible from Linux, HP-UX, and other hosts remotely in a web-enabled environment. "Storage and asset management capabilities are critical to our business success and future," said Chuck Sears, manager of Research Computing for the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science at Oregon State University. "Because our storage needs are always growing, we need cost effective storage solutions that will grow with us. After evaluating several options, we chose Sun's ESM software because it will support our complex environment and will decrease our total cost of ownership." Sun Raises The Bar on Data Continuance As part of its open SAN management solution, Sun also announced today new products in its data continuance solution sets, the new Sun StorEdge(TM) L25 and L100 tape libraries. These new tape libraries provide high capacity in a compact footprint for midrange applications and are some of the most scalable systems on the market. Used in conjunction with Sun's robust file sharing capabilities, the libraries enable customers to accelerate data continuance and simplify the backup and recovery process. Sun's new storage offerings, combined with expert storage consulting, training and support from Sun Services, provide Sun customers with an integrated and proven approach to architecting open standards-based storage management solutions. Pricing and Availability ESM is available today through customers' Sun sales representatives with pricing starting at $15,000 and follows a tiered, capacity-based volume pricing model. For more information see www.sun.com/storage.