Rhapsody Networks and StoreAge to Deliver Intelligent, Network-Based Storage Management Solutions

StoreAge SVM (Storage Virtualization Manager) to Run on Rhapsody's XPath Architecture to Drive Down Storage Management Costs

Fremont, Calif., and Irvine, Calif., Aug. 26, 2002 -Rhapsody Networks, a leading provider of intelligent storage networking products, and StoreAge Networking Technologies, an innovative provider of enterprise storage area network (SAN) management software, today announced that StoreAge's SVM? (Storage Virtualization Manager) solution will be available on the Rhapsody family of storage application directors. The combined solution will provide enterprise customers with a high-performance, scalable, and cost-effective method of centrally managing heterogeneous SAN environments, lowering the total cost of ownership for enterprise storage networks.

StoreAge's SVM is a network-based volume and storage management solution that provides centrally managed storage pooling and provisioning, snapshot, data migration, and data replication across heterogeneous hosts and storage devices. Working with Rhapsody, the SVM Agent software, a highly compact agent that normally resides on each host server attached to the SAN, will be migrated to run on the Rhapsody platforms. This approach distributes the point of transformation? in a virtualized SAN environment to each port in the storage application directors, allowing any attached host to utilize SVM functions. In addition, the distributed architecture of this solution provides a flexible foundation that easily scales to meet future connectivity and performance requirements.

Rhapsody Networks' line of storage application directors utilizes a new storage architecture that reduces the cost and complexity of managing SANs, allowing storage applications to span an unbounded number of SAN-connected hosts and storage systems. Based on Rhapsody's patent-pending XPath technology, these platforms centralize storage application software within the SAN itself, not on the host or storage systems.

Moving agents off the host and putting them at the port gives end users additional flexibility in managing their host hardware, said Steve Kenniston, technology analyst at Enterprise Storage Group, the leading independent source of storage industry intelligence. Putting virtualization, as a platform, in the fabric enables direct execution of storage functions, increasing performance and providing a single comprehensive management platform.

According to Rhapsody Networks president and CEO, Mike Klayko, this partnership furthers Rhapsody's strategy of working with key storage software vendors to deliver the best storage management applications to enterprises. "StoreAge's innovative technology combined with Rhapsody's XPath Architecture provides our customers with a solution that will hit the bottom line for data-intensive enterprises. Now, more than ever, lower costs and ease of storage management are strong value propositions."

Added Mark Spowart, President of StoreAge Networking Technologies: "The distributed architecture of the SVM solution is ideally suited for use on the Rhapsody platform. By embedding SVM's capabilities within the Rhapsody storage application directors, we are expanding the choices our mutual customers have in centrally managing their heterogeneous SAN environments."

About Rhapsody Networks
Rhapsody Networks is a provider of intelligent storage networking products that reduce the complexity and cost of managing corporate information. Rhapsody products are based on patent-pending XPath technology, which provides unprecedented scalability and flexibility for the management of enterprise storage area networks. Rhapsody Networks is headquartered in Fremont, Calif., and can be reached at 510-743-3000. Web site is www.rhapsodynetworks.com.

About StoreAge Networking Technologies:
StoreAge Networking Technologies is a privately held company founded in 1999 as a spin-off from IIS Intelligent Information Systems (NASDAQ: IISL). Since then, StoreAge has obtained more than $28 million of equity investment from major strategic as well as leading financial groups. The company has offices in Irvine, Calif., and Nesher, Israel, as well as strategic partners in several European and Far East countries. StoreAge develops and provides innovative storage management software with a focus on SAN architecture. StoreAge is a technology leader in storage virtualization using an asymmetric design implemented through a SAN appliance approach. The company seeks to increase and expand its cooperation with major OEM partners, storage systems integrators and storage service providers to deliver advanced storage solutions to the enterprise market. StoreAge is a member of both the U.S. and European Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and of SNIA's IP Storage Forum. More information is available on the Web at www.store-age.com.