Compaq beats EMC, IBM, Dell and Network Appliance

Compaq today launched two new StorageWorks Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems, introducing a market-leading powerful suite of NAS products. Compaq now offers a wide range of network storage solutions for any size of business, the most complete NAS and SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions on the market.

"No other vendor can match our suite of products in terms of breadth of offering, performance, scalability, ease-of-use, SAN/NAS fusion and standards support," said Kim Howlett, Storage Product Group, Compaq. "Whether you`re in a small business or large enterprise, and you need either a stand-alone NAS system or one that can connect into a Storage Area Network (SAN), Compaq`s suite has a solution."

Compaq`s new products include the StorageWorks NAS S1000 for enterprise remote offices or small businesses, and the StorageWorks NAS B3000 for enterprises that want to fuse their NAS and SAN systems. Compaq pioneered the convergence of NAS and SAN technologies. It has long advocated - and introduced technology - for NAS and SAN solutions to be built using open systems platforms and architecture. Compaq`s Enterprise Storage Network Architecture (ENSA) vision ensures hardware compatibility, high performance, low maintenance costs, and investment protection.

Compaq was the first to recognise that even more significant benefits can be achieved by "fusing" the NAS and SAN environments into a single, consolidated storage pool. Compaq calls this "Universal Network Storage".

Implementing network storage in a SAN or NAS environment has been proven to reduce ownership costs by as much as 45 percent, according to a survey by Merrill Lynch and McKinsey & Company.

The Compaq StorageWorks NAS S1000 (S1000) is a quick and simple NAS solution providing multi-protocol file and storage management for workgroups, small business and remote locations. Compaq offers turnkey - complete project management - network storage solutions, that are easy to deploy and easy to manage. The S1000 provides "plug and forget" file serving at a price approaching that of tape. With 320 and 640 gigabyte models available, Compaq delivers to NAS customers a complete package built for convenience with low cost of entry, low management and limited training requirements.

For more information about StorageWorks NAS B3000 and S1000 by Compaq, please click: http://www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/announcements/04-08-2002.html.

Compaq also announced today new technologies that it will incorporate into its NAS product line this year. These technologies provide Compaq customers with power and speed exceeding proprietary NAS architectures, as well as the ability to be seamlessly integrated into Compaq and non-Compaq storage environments.

To demonstrate the power of standards, Compaq announced technology for "the world`s fastest NAS," an open standards-based Compaq NAS system that provides up to twice the speed of competitive NAS products when running standard, independently audited, benchmark tests.

In addition, Compaq has announced its intention to provide Compaq NAS connectivity into third-party SANs, providing customers with the ability to maximise and protect their investment in legacy or heterogeneous storage environments.

Howlett added: "Compaq`s new range of NAS solutions provide the ultimate in performance with the cost of ownership benefits of open standards technologies. That synergy represents the best way to ensure that customers get enterprise class NAS solutions in a cost-effective and high-ROI framework."