AppIQ Accelerates Adoption of CIM With CIMIQ Development Platform and Associated Partner Program.

Business/Technology Editors

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2002

Charter Members of CIMIQ Partner Program Include Brocade, Hitachi Data

Systems, LSI Logic Storage Systems, Network Appliance and Sun

Microsystems

AppIQ(TM), an application storage resource management software developer, today announced CIMIQ, a software development platform and testing toolset enabling accelerated deployment of CIM/WBEM/Bluefin-compliant products. CIMIQ is being marketed through the CIMIQ Partner Program to independent hardware and software vendors looking to shorten development cycles and reduce the costs associated with developing CIM-compliant products. Vendors that need to acquire CIM technology, as well as those with their own CIM products, can benefit from the tools available with CIMIQ. By offering CIMIQ to the marketplace, AppIQ is giving other vendors the opportunity to leverage its early development efforts while broadening device support for the AppIQ Solution Suite and advancing standards-based solutions for customers.

"CIM represents an industry-wide standards-based solution to solve my complex storage infrastructure management headaches," said Ray Bourgoin, vice president of information resources for the Boston Stock Exchange. "By employing a CIM-based solution I have a real shot at resolving my issues through a single cohesive management application while maintaining future investment protection."

Data Mobility Group Senior Analyst and Founder John Webster has received similar input from other end-users. "The storage administrators I talk to say they don't manage terabytes separately from applications - they manage them together. However, a management void exists between the applications and storage domains. CIM/WBEM fills that void, and AppIQ is helping to deliver on its promise."

CIM Evangelists

Believing that the adoption of industry standards is the shortest route to eliminating the difficulties faced by customers trying to manage heterogeneous storage environments, AppIQ is evangelizing the benefits of the Storage Networking Industry Association's (SNIA) Common Information Model (CIM) / Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standard and recently announced Bluefin storage management specification with the announcement of CIMIQ.

"Response from the vendor and end-user communities alike has been extremely positive," said AppIQ's Vice President of Business Development and Strategy Doug Cahill. "We like to think of CIMIQ as the `Red Hat' for CIM since our early efforts have helped to pave the way for a number of storage vendors to advance the development of CIM-compliant products."

Industry analysts are outspoken in regard to the requirement for an industry standard. "Using CIM as the industry-standard foundation will provide a robust data model that can deliver strong management capabilities to SAN components," said Gartner Group Chief Storage Analyst Carolyn DiCenzo. "The industry will benefit from having a standard, nonproprietary way of accessing storage and SAN-device information as well as having a common model for activities such as masking logical unit numbers."

AppIQ is an active member in a number of industry standards organizations including the SNIA and the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). At Storage Networking World next week, AppIQ is participating in the CIM-SAN demonstration, a SAN managed through a single management backbone built on CIM/WBEM technology.

"Getting vendors to work together cooperatively to advance standards that solve customer problems is the main goal of the SNIA," said SNIA Technical Director Arnold Jones. "As a SNIA member, AppIQ has played an important role in the SNIA's CIM initiative and storage management development efforts."

CIMIQ Partner Program

The CIMIQ Partner Program allows AppIQ to leverage the development work it has already completed to support the CIM development efforts of other storage vendors. These partnerships can shorten time-to-market for CIM-compliant products and ultimately deliver more comprehensive management solutions to end users. AppIQ has witnessed broad industry support and has already signed a number of partners to the CIMIQ Partner Program including Brocade, Hitachi Data Systems, LSI Logic Storage Systems, Network Appliance, and Sun Microsystems.

"CIMIQ gives hardware and software vendors a significant jumpstart in the development of CIM-enabled storage products," said Mike Karp, senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates of Boulder, Colorado. "With AppIQ's development and deployment platform, vendors will get their CIM-based solutions into the product pipeline quickly and efficiently, thereby reducing time to market and increasing the value they can deliver to their customers."

Brocade

"As a leader in storage networking standards development and contributor to the CIM and Bluefin standards, Brocade welcomes the CIMIQ program, which is providing Brocade with a toolset for testing the CIM and Bluefin compliance of our technology," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade Chief Marketing Officer. "As Brocade delivers its own CIM-compliant API in the first half of 2003, we look forward to working with partners to extend the choice in standards-based management options for our customers."

Hitachi Data Systems

"Hitachi Data Systems is constantly seeking opportunities to advance open standards and is specifically supportive of efforts to accelerate the adoption and implementation of CIM technology by the storage industry," said Steve East, vice president of solutions integration for Hitachi Data Systems. "CIMIQ will allow vendors to provide standards-based storage management in a fraction of the development time required in the past and at a fraction of the cost."

LSI Logic Storage Systems

"LSI Logic Storage Systems has been a leader in providing a rich Application Programming Interface (API) for our storage systems and have fully supported partner integration efforts on behalf of our customers," said Stan Skelton, director of strategic planning for LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc. "CIMIQ takes these integration efforts to a whole new level by superceding the need to write an individual interface for each management application. Using a standard interface, we skip a step and gain the ability to support a broader range of vendor solutions. This is a definite win for our customers."

Network Appliance

Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance, noted, "Network Appliance has a long history of delivering innovative enterprise storage solutions based on open standards and is proud to be a founding member of the CIMIQ.Partner Program. We are already active CIM supporters, and are enthusiastic about the management benefits CIMIQ can offer our customers, who have come to rely on NetApp unified storage solutions to meet a variety of enterprise IT demands, including storage consolidation, data center operations, business continuance, and distributed enterprise applications. Companies around the world rely on us for robust but simple storage appliances that combine high performance and rich functionality with a compelling TCO and value proposition. CIMIQ enables us to continue delivering those benefits in new and exciting management applications."

Sun

"As one of the original architects of the CIM standard, Sun is fully committed to advancing its adoption," said James Staten, director of software marketing for Network Storage, Sun Microsystems. "We've had the opportunity to work with AppIQ in the SNIA's CIM-SAN plugfest and have been impressed with the progress they've made to date in making CIM-compliance a reality. Joining the CIMIQ Partner Program is all in keeping with Sun's belief that CIM will deliver the manageability end users are demanding."

The CIMIQ Operating Environment

The CIMIQ development and deployment platform is comprised of a variety of software components including sample CIM provider source code and associated documentation as well as a full complement of services and support. More details are provided in the specification sheet available at www.appiq.com/cimiq.

Pricing and Availability

CIMIQ is available immediately. Pricing is based on individual vendor requirements.

About AppIQ

AppIQ(TM) delivers standards-based solutions that simplify the management of complex storage environments. Reduced complexity is achieved by managing the infrastructure as a system, integrating applications, and implementing open industry standards. The result is an easy to deploy and simple-to-use solution that provides more efficient use of existing assets, increased application availability, and quicker deployment of storage infrastructure and business applications. AppIQ is working with key storage vendors to drive industry standards forward and help pave the road to fully integrated storage management. AppIQ's technology partners include Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Hitachi Data Systems, LSI Logic Storage Systems (NYSE: LSI), Network Appliance (Nasdaq: NTAP), Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and VERITAS (Nasdaq: VRTS). AppIQ is also an active participant in leading industry standards groups including the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF) and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). Contact AppIQ at [e-mail], [phone] or visit www.appiq.com/news.htm for more information.

AppIQ is a trademark of AppIQ, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.