BlueArc Turnkey Global Services Accelerate Customer Networks to SiliconServer Speeds; Advanced Service and Support Offerings Optimize Network Performance for Enterprise Customers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2002

BlueArc Corp., provider of the world's highest performance and most scalable enterprise-class network attached storage (NAS) systems, today announced the introduction of turnkey assessment services aimed at helping customers get the most out of their network storage. Delivered by highly trained professionals from BlueArc's Global Services organization with experience in the latest storage, networking and application technologies and protocols, BlueArc's assessment services are designed to meet specific customer requirements, optimize network performance, and enhance the value of BlueArc storage solutions.

"Our storage infrastructure is mission-critical for our company's daily operations, and it's essential that every element operates seamlessly together. The BlueArc Global Services organization has helped us develop our Network Attached Storage solution, enabling us to reach our best possible performance day in and day out -- effectively maximizing the power of our SiliconServer," said Harry Skopas, vice president of engineering at Charlex, a digital design, effects and production house for the advertising, broadcast and entertainment industries, and a BlueArc customer for nearly a year. "BlueArc's professional services and ongoing support have been instrumental in turning our NAS infrastructure into a strategic asset to our business."

To help customers enhance their environment, BlueArc's Global Services provides a suite of turnkey assessment service offerings.

Storage Assessment Service: BlueArc's storage assessment service determines storage issues that impact an enterprise's day-to-day business. Regardless of the storage environment a company currently has installed, BlueArc Professional Service architects will conduct a full on-site storage audit and analysis to investigate, document and make recommendations on potential storage usage enhancements, upgrades, replacements and performance.

Network Assessment Service: BlueArc's network assessment service determines network availability, fault tolerance and throughput issues required for the smooth functioning of an enterprise's network. Applicable to both flat L2 networks and advanced L3 switching networks, the service is conducted by BlueArc Professional Service architects, and includes a full on-site network audit and analysis. The service details audit findings and makes recommendations on potential network enhancements, upgrades and performance.

APC PowerAudit(R) Service: Delivered in conjunction with BlueArc partner American Power Conversion's (APC) Global Services organization, the PowerAudit(R) service evaluates the quality of an enterprise's electrical infrastructure and electrical network topology to determine its ability to support high-availability, mission-critical storage systems. The service helps protect against both power and temperature problems, two leading causes of downtime, data loss and hardware damage.

"Today's enterprise environments demand increasingly high performance from the network. Attaining peak performance may require a combination of our high performance storage systems plus the experience of how to tune the storage, the network, the clients -- the entire environment," said Ron Howe, vice president of global services for BlueArc. "BlueArc's expertise in tuning the core IT infrastructure to achieve optimum performance, maximum uptime, and minimal headaches with high performance storage deployments is unique in the industry. Our customers realize a strong return not only from the BlueArc storage solution, but also on their other investments in infrastructure technologies and enterprise applications."

In addition to turnkey Professional Service assessments, BlueArc Global Services offers a suite of standard and customizable educational services to meet a customer's unique training needs. In addition, BlueArc's Prism Protection Program offers an array of standard and premium customer support services ensure optimal uptime and system performance. The program includes toll-free telephone support, on-site diagnostic and subsystem replacement, and proactive mission critical system monitoring via the BlueArc Alerts system.

"Our customers have realized leading performance with our SiliconServer Architecture, enabling them to take the next step in bringing their networks to their full potential," said Jeff Allen, senior vice president of marketing for BlueArc. "Our Global Services offerings are key to ensuring continued high performance across all facets of our customers' network storage infrastructure."

BlueArc Global Services are available immediately worldwide. More information about packaged or customized service and support offerings is available at http://www.bluearc.com/services.

About BlueArc

BlueArc Corp. delivers the world's highest-performance and most scalable enterprise-class network attached storage (NAS) systems. BlueArc's systems are designed to simplify the way enterprise customers design and build their storage infrastructures, allowing them to fully exploit their networks while dramatically lowering their total cost of ownership. BlueArc is able to provide products with groundbreaking speed, scalability and low total cost-of-ownership as a result of its unique SiliconServer architecture. This revolutionary technology removes the bottlenecks that limit performance in other NAS systems on the market today. The company's headquarters are in San Jose, Calif. with UK operations based in Bracknell, England. More information on BlueArc is available on the Internet at www.bluearc.com.