NEWS BRIEFS

Houston, TEXAS — Compaq Computer Corporation expanded its investment program to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative storage hardware, software and utility provider solutions. Compaq will dedicate $100 million dollars to its storage investment fund in 2001.

“Compaq’s commitment of capital to storage companies demonstrates our vision for driving the development and delivery of the Open SAN,” said Howard Elias, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Storage Group, Compaq Computer Corporation. “Our investments will enable the realization of enterprise storage solutions that satisfy customers’ evolving business needs.”

Examples of Compaq storage investments during the past year include HighGround Systems, Inc., Nupremis, Inc., Prisa Networks and StorageNetworks, Inc. In addition to equity investments, Compaq’s strategic service provider partners – including Acxiom Corporation, Data Return Corporation (Nasdaq: DRTN), Digex Incorporated, Exodus Communications, Inc. and NaviSite, Inc. – are adding or expanding managed hosting and storage services and utility offerings to their portfolios.

Additional companies will be selected for funding that share Compaq’s strategic vision for storage networking, create enabling technology, and offer the potential for financial return. Priority strategic investments include innovative new technologies in hardware and software and service and solution providers. Companies interested in potential investment may submit business plans for review to [email protected].

“Compaq’s direct economic support should be sufficient incentive for the flourishing of many beneficial network storage innovations,” said David Hill, Research Director, Storage and Storage management, Aberdeen Group. “Compaq’s innovative storage idea-promoting investment fund that complements the open standards of its Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA) strategy is therefore welcome news for many enterprises.”

Gartner recently designated Compaq an industry leader in its SAN Solutions Magic Quadrant, recognizing Compaq for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. The Gartner report may be accessed at http://www.gartner.com/webletter/compaqstorage/october/index.html

Compaq’s Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA) strategy enables customers to efficiently manage complex, mixed storage environments in an Open SAN.

Open SANs adhere to industry standards at all levels-servers, disk arrays, tape storage, and switches-and can be managed with common tools. This open technology delivers the promise of an integrated Storage Area Network because it allows any-to-any connectivity among servers and storage systems, regardless of operating system or manufacturer.

Compaq’s storage strategy supports its overall corporate commitment to delivering innovative solutions across the enterprise that enables customers to achieve their business objectives.

VentureWire reported more than $300 million in venture capital investment in the storage sector from July 1999 through September 2000. Venture Capitalists expect increasing interest in storage, fueled by the expansion of Net bandwidth.

The explosive growth of e-business rapidly increases the volume and complexity of data storage management. Many companies now dedicate half their hardware investment to storage systems. Storage capacity more than doubles each year and analysts expect the largest 2,500 companies worldwide to spend more than $19 million each on storage by 2003 (Forrester Research).

Compaq is a leading storage systems supplier with 42 petabytes shipped in 1999 (IDC). More information is available at http://www.compaq.com/storage .

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