B&L Associates' Vertices Tape Management Software Now Available for Windows 2000; Manages Tapes and Other Media From Any Application/Operating System.

Business/Technology Editors

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2000

B&L(TM) Associates Inc., a leading provider of removable computer tape management software, today announced that the Vertices(TM) tape management system is available for Microsoft Windows 2000. The new version of Vertices, which can be hosted on any Windows 2000 Professional, Server or Advanced Server platform, controls the movement, management and retrieval of removable tapes and other types of media from any source, including legacy Windows platforms, UNIX, Linux and mainframe systems.

"Windows 2000 is well on its way to becoming an enterprise workhorse taking on many mission-critical applications," commented Michael Kramer, B&L vice president of sales and marketing. "As it moves into this role, Windows 2000 requires a mature and robust management system that controls the tapes and other media, such as CDs, once they leave the online environment. Vertices is the only product that offers complete removable tape management regardless of the operating system, regardless of the applications being run, and regardless of the size and scope of the enterprise network."

Vertices for Windows 2000 incorporates all of the features of the Windows NT version. It tracks removable physical tapes and other media, such as magnetic tape, disk, CD-ROM, Digital Linear Tape (DLT). Vertices is designed for managing data center tapes as well as compliance programs for licensed software and for keeping track of personal computer and workstation media.

Using Vertices, systems managers can apply sophisticated tracking that includes:

-- Vault Management: Vertices enables systems managers and administrators to
set parameters to manage tapes based on days or generations and to create
automated movement schedules.

-- Inventory Management: Vertices tracks tapes by volume name, generation, type
of media, location and other parameters. Its flexible tracking approach enables
users to track tapes in fixed or batch modes using bar code technology.

-- Retention Management: Vertices assigns volume names to tapes before use to
automate the retention process and automatically generates volume labels for
printing or electronic distribution. Retention parameters can be set up to
accommodate normal, alternate and relationship retentions.

-- Networked and Scalable: Designed to work in traditional Local Area Networks
(LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) as well as over fiber-based Storage Area
Networks (SANs), Vertices is fully scalable to enterprise-wide applications.

-- Security: Two-tiered data security provides access control to tapes and
assigns restrictions to specific functions and tape subsets by user, host
and/or volume name. Vertices' sophisticated audit capabilities flexibly track
tape and volume history.

About B&L Associates Inc.

B&L Associates, established in 1975, is the largest removable tape management provider to the Unisys ClearPath marketplace and a leader in open systems tape management. The company offers a full suite of data center operations automation products and storage management solutions as well as online scheduling, billing and labeling systems. B&L, with installations in 26 countries, serves some of the world's leading organizations, including Arthur Andersen, Credit Suisse|First Boston, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the Home Shopping Network, JP Morgan, Kaiser Permanente and the state of Michigan. For further information, contact B&L at 877-VERTICES (877-837-8423) or http://www.vertices.net.

B&L and Vertices are trademarks of B&L Associates Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.