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FlashDisk OpenSAN Delivers Scalable High Performance

Burlington, MA. November 26, 2001 - Winchester Systems announced a new high performance fibre channel Storage Area Network that scales as easily in performance as it scales in size to meet the needs of enterprise applications.

The company's FlashDisk OpenSAN includes ultra-high performance FlashDisk OpenRAID disk arrays in a fibre channel Storage Area Network (SAN) to provide large shared storage pools for use in the most demanding large scale applications. The OpenSAN permits up to 64 servers, RAID arrays and tape systems to be connected into each fibre channel switch in the SAN.

"Winchester Systems now offers a flexible, scalable, high performance SAN that delivers all the expected SAN capabilities plus scalable performance and simplicity of configuration and management," according to Mr. Jerry Namery, the company's chief technology officer. "We compare favorably in price and especially in performance to any SAN," he added.

Performance
Each FlashDisk OpenRAID disk array in the FlashDisk OpenSAN provides 13,000 sustained disk operations per second and up to 121 MB per second sustained data throughput. In a single cabinet, FlashDisk provides 117,000 sustained disk operations per second and over 1 GB per second data throughput. This is 5 to 25 times more performance than the most popular "frame" storage systems.

Shared Storage Pool
Each disk array in the FlashDisk OpenSAN supports up to 1.45 TB in a single rackmount shelf or pedestal enclosure. A single Data Center Cabinet can store up to 13 TB in just six square feet. The total capacity of each FlashDisk OpenRAID disk array can be allocated in any amount by partitioning the storage into as many as 32 logical volumes (LUNs), or up to 288 LUNs in a Data Center Cabinet. Each volume can then be assigned to a specific host server or multiple servers. FlashDisk OpenRAID disk arrays supports RAID 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15.

SAN Functionality
FlashDisk OpenSAN provides true SAN functionality. It provides the ability to consolidate servers with an easy to manage, shared storage pool. Data partitioning and access security is granted and controlled by each FlashDisk OpenRAID unit and administered on the centralized FlashConsole. Multiple servers can be clustered using operating systems that support clustering, for example, WinNT/2K, Solaris or Linux. Software tools from partner companies including Veritas, Microsoft, Steeleye and Mission Critical Linux enable server clustering to provide business continuance despite hardware failures. FlashDisk OpenSAN also provides a platform for creating disk-to-disk backups, snapshot backups plus remote mirror and disaster recovery images using today's popular backup and replication software tools including Falconstor, Veritas, Microsoft and others. The high performance of FlashDisk makes it ideal for rapid recovery from a disaster using disk-to-disk backup and restore.

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) Option
When utilizing Veritas Volume Manager, FlashDisk OpenSAN fully supports DMP. Each FlashDisk OpenRAID disk array in the SAN supports multiple path connections and they are specifically designed to accept DMP access. Using two paths instead of one increases data throughput, however, DMP provides additional and substantial performance increases by load balancing access across the dual data paths by fully utilizing both paths at all times. If one path should fail, DMP automatically fails over to the alternate path to maintain continuous operation transparently to both hosts and clients. This is a very popular option in enterprise applications to keep data available in the event of connectivity failures.

LAN-Free Backup
With an optional tape library and industry standard backup software, the backup traffic is offloaded to the SAN that provides its own bandwith instead of sharing any existing LAN bandwidth. Centralized backup is performed using a single backup server with a tape library that is connected via the SAN to all the data storage devices. The backup server is granted read-only access to all the SAN storage and backs up all the data to the tape library. This eliminates changing tapes every day on every server by sharing a centralized tape library. It also eliminates the cost of backup agent licenses for every server.

Disaster Recovery Option
Using remote data replication software, data can be duplicated in real-time to a local or remote recovery site as far away as 120 km.

Compatibility
FlashDisk OpenSAN supports all open systems servers including HP, SUN, IBM, Intel and MAC running any operating system including UNIX, NT and Linux with no host software drivers needed.

Price and Delivery
FlashDisk OpenSAN including two FlashDisk OpenRAID disk arrays, each with 1.45 TB of storage, totaling 2.9 TB and a 16-port fibre channel switch, cables and FlashConsole storage management workstation is priced at $161,328. Delivery is two to three weeks.

On-Line FlashDisk OpenSAN Information:

• http://www.winsys.com/products/flopensan.php

About Winchester Systems
Winchester Systems provides SAN and NAS capable enterprise storage solutions including high performance SCSI and fibre channel RAID disk arrays, solid-state disks, tape backup devices and other high performance commercial and military grade storage for mid-range servers including UNIX and NT. Winchester Systems provides products that support today's most demanding industrial, government and commercial applications. For more information, contact Winchester Systems Inc., 149 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, MA 01803, USA. Toll free: 800-325-3700, international: 781-265-0200, fax: 781-265-0201. E-mail address: info@winsys.com, web site: www.winsys.com.

Winchester Systems, FlashDisk and OpenRAID are trademarks or registered trademarks of Winchester Systems All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

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