Akara Announces the Successful Completion of Hitachi Data Systems' Interoperability Demonstration Program with Hitachi Freedom Storage Solutions.

Business Editors

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 2003

Customers can reduce network costs while securely extending data over distance with Akara's OUSP Storage over SONET extension device and Hitachi's Freedom Storage Solutions

Akara, a leading provider of Storage over SONET extension solutions, today announced the successful completion of the Hitachi Data Systems Interoperability Demonstration Program (IDP) with Akara's OUSP(TM) storage extension device and the HDS Hitachi Freedom Storage (TM) Lightning 9900(TM) V and Lightning 9900(TM) Series product families. The verification configurations included using Akara's OUSP to extend TrueCopy(TM) replication over a SONET OC-3 connection to a simulated distance of 20,000 km and performing the same operation using a SONET OC-48 connection over fiber. Enterprise customers using Akara's OUSP with Hitachi's Freedom Storage Solutions can now extend their SANs across the MAN/WAN with improved business continuance capabilities and significantly reduced network costs.

Customers can utilize Akara's OUSP, which multiplexes data center protocols such as FC, FICON, ESCON and GbE directly into flexible SONET payloads and carries them over existing SONET, dark fiber or DWDM networks to extend applications such as Hitachi's TrueCopy(TM) replication software over greater distances. The OUSP satisfies the quality of service (QoS) requirements of the most demanding business continuance applications and flexibly allocates bandwidth to multiple protocols only as needed, reducing expenses associated with network inefficiencies and unnecessary capital costs. By supporting a variety of protocols and technologies on one network connection, and allowing companies to meet their storage extension needs largely through assets they already own or lease, the OUSP enables customers to reduce their network costs while transporting mission-critical data over the MAN/WAN.

"Interoperability and low cost are essential requirements for our customers as their storage needs grow, while, at the same time, they are faced with significant budget pressures," said Ed Ogonek, CEO of Akara. "Through HDS' IDP, Akara is providing a proven solution that enables customers to extend their business continuance applications across the MAN/WAN and between geographically-dispersed data centers while lowering their operational and capital costs. Akara understands that customers need high-performance, low-risk solutions to SAN extension and this is the reason that Akara's list of qualifications with leading enterprise storage vendors continues to grow."

See www.hds.com/products/idp for additional information regarding Hitachi Data Systems' Interoperability Demonstration Program.

Akara OUSP

Akara's OUSP is a cost-effective, high performance storage extension device that reduces initial capital costs by up to 80% compared with traditional channel extenders. The OUSP aggregates and directly maps Fibre Channel, ESCON, GbE and FICON into SONET for higher throughput with the security and performance monitoring capabilities of a SONET infrastructure--but without the complexity and added cost of ATM, IP or Packet over SONET. By eliminating the need for these intermediary protocols, the OUSP provides a clear demarcation point in the network for rapid fault isolation and SLA monitoring. The OUSP multiplexes storage protocols through the enterprise's existing network, whether it is SONET/SDH, DWDM or dark fiber, while connecting through one of many WAN interface options: DS3, OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, and OC-48/STM-16. The addition of integrated data compression, combined with the ability to dynamically share MAN/WAN bandwidth between multiple technologies with low latency allows for up to 90% more efficient use of WAN bandwidth and can reduce operational costs by as much as 60%.

About Hitachi Freedom Storage

The Lightning 9900(TM) and Lightning 9900(TM) V Series storage systems form the foundation of an intelligent information infrastructure, enabling enterprise customers to simplify and consolidate storage management while reducing total cost of ownership and maximizing return on investment. Combined with sophisticated software to copy, safeguard, move and manage data, Hitachi Freedom Data Networks(TM) solutions deliver set-and-forget management as well as flexible capacity, performance and connectivity. To learn more about Hitachi Freedom Storage and the HDS' IDP please visit www.hds.com.

About Akara

Akara, the Storage over SONET market leader, is the only equipment supplier with a singular focus on extending business continuance applications between data centers with the lowest MByte per mile cost across existing MAN/WAN networks. Akara's solutions significantly reduces operational and capital expense by leveraging the existing SONET/SDH, dark fiber or DWDM networks, and ensures the performance of Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON and Gigabit Ethernet in geographically dispersed business continuance applications. Akara has offices in Ottawa, Ontario and Dallas, Texas. Visit Akara online at www.akara.com.