ATL announces OEM agreement with VERITAS; companies partner to deliver first Internet-based library-management products.

ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1996--ATL Products Inc., supplier of the world's most popular midrange automated DLT (a) library systems, and an Odetics company (NASDAQ:ODETA,ODETB), Tuesday announced that it has entered into an OEM agreement with VERITAS Software (NASDAQ:VRTS) to develop the industry's first Internet tape-library management products.

Aiming to fill the void for both turnkey library systems and advanced library-management tools, ATL has licensed VERITAS' Media Librarian (a). The VERITAS product offers powerful media-management capabilities and serves as the foundation for ATL's ground-breaking WebAdmin library-administration software.

The products from ATL and VERITAS are designed to work alongside popular data-management packages from Legato, OpenVision, Computer Associates, Seagate and others.

"ATL's WebAdmin, in conjunction with VERITAS Media Librarian, creates a new entry into the class of products called `Storage Resource Management,'" said Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corp.

"Storage Resource Management is analogous to systems management for storage. These two products complement traditional data- management solutions such as backup or archiving by making the tape library a centrally administered, shared resource."

Powered by Java (a), VERITAS Media Librarian and WebAdmin deliver several industry firsts, including:

-- Library setup, monitoring and remote diagnostics from a Web

browser;

-- Predictive failure analysis, allowing problems to be reported 

long before a failure occurs;

-- Bringing previously complex library management within reach

of end users with simple "point-and-click" operation;

-- A graphical library user interface incorporating the Java

Management API (JMAPI) look and feel.

According to Chet Baffa, ATL's vice president of marketing and sales, "The ATL and VERITAS products are shrink-wrapped library solutions that system and network administrators are now demanding." He noted that until now, implementing a complete library system required integration of hardware from a library vendor with backup software from an independent software vendor.

ATL is streamlining the implementation process with turnkey hardware/software solutions for Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX and Windows NT. Control of libraries and media will be assisted by VERITAS Media Librarian software, and, for the first time, configuring and monitoring ATL libraries will be made possible with Java-based WebAdmin software.

Another shortcoming identified by system administrators is the limited support currently available for automated tape libraries. Existing automated library "media management" has been limited to simply moving tape cartridges and maintaining a tape-cartridge database.

VERITAS Media Librarian will provide ATL customers richer media management with centralized control of multiple libraries on different host platforms, and an open applications programmer interface.

ATL used the open interface to extend VERITAS Media Librarian to create innovative library "administration" tools. The ATL WebAdmin software provides a set of basic library-administration capabilities such as setup, monitoring, event logging and e-mail event notification.

WebAdmin also provides many advanced administration features, including predictive failure analysis, reporting, pager event notification and an SNMP agent for seamless integration with major network-management frameworks from Sun, IBM, HP and Cabletron. WebAdmin can be conveniently accessed locally from any browser within an intranet or remotely from anywhere on the World Wide Web.

Designed for "point-and-click" library management, ATL's interface to VERITAS Media Librarian and ATL WebAdmin will be the industry's first library graphical user interface powered by Java. The graphical user interface is compliant with the Java Management API (JMAPI) style guide, making it easy to navigate for users familiar with other JMAPI applications.

VERITAS Software designs, develops and markets enterprise data- management and high-availability products for business-critical computing systems. The products are designed to improve system performance, availability and manageability while reducing the cost of administration.

VERITAS products are licensed as source products to more than 50 OEMs worldwide. Shrink-wrapped versions of the products for Sun SPARC Solaris, as well as SunOS, IBM and HP-UX, are currently sold through a growing channel of VERITAS authorized channel partners in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

The publicly held company's world headquarters are located at 1600 Plymouth St., Mountain View, Calif. 94043; telephone [phone]; fax [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; WWW site http://www.veritas.com/

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the company's growth. The actual results of the company may differ materially and will depend on its performance which could be adversely affected by such factors as short product lives, unexpected shortages of critical components, the timing and market acceptance of planned new product introductions, competition (including new and directly competitive products from others), and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products by both distribution channels and end-user customers.

The company's forward-looking statements are qualified by reference to these factors affecting its business. Investors are strongly urged to review the risk factors set forth in the company's last filed 10-K and 10-Q.

ATL Products, a wholly owned subsidiary of Odetics Inc., supplies the world's most popular midrange DLT automated tape- library systems for the network server, midrange and mainframe computer markets.

Based on the ATL unique implementation of its IntelliGrip automation technology coupled with its ATL specified DLT tape drives, the company's products have demonstrated an industry-leading, field-proven reputation for maximum subsystem reliability and data availability. ATL Products provides sales and service support throughout the United States and in major cities in Europe and Asia.

The company's world headquarters are located at 1515 S. Manchester, Anaheim, Calif. 92802-2907; telephone [phone]; fax [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; WWW site http://www.atlp.com/

(a) A trademark or trade name of an entity other than ATL Products.

CONTACT: ATL Products Inc., Anaheim

Chet Baffa, 714/780-7790

[e-mail] (e-mail)

http://www.atlp.com

or

JPR Communications

Judy Smith, 818/992-8867

[e-mail] (e-mail)

http://www.jprcom.com