Bus-Tech Announces New Release of The Mainframe Appliance for Storage; New Features Offer Higher Performance and Enhanced Reliability.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2003

Bus-Tech(R), Inc., a leading supplier of data center connectivity products, announced significant enhancements to the Mainframe Appliance for Storage (MAS) today, a tape-on-disk controller for System/390 mainframes. The new release of the MAS offers: a higher performance platform, additional reliability features, support for additional virtual drives and is FiCON enabled. A FiCON adapter option will be available on the MAS in June 2003.

The new MAS platform features include: an Intel 2.4 gigahertz XEON processor, dual on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports and is based on Redhat Linux 7.3 utilizing the EXT3 file system. Alternate Pathing is a new feature, which provides load-balancing and automatic failover between two ESCON adapters within the same MAS. Additional new features include: IDRC initiated data compression, an additional 16 virtual drives per ESCON (now supports 32 drives per ESCON) and Fast Locate to improve performance for searching large tape files.

"This new release of the Mainframe Appliance for Storage firmly position it as a true enterprise storage solution," stated Al Brandt, Vice President of Operations for Bus-Tech, Inc. "The enhanced reliability features of the MAS provide the load-balancing and automatic failover that are inherent with mainframe tape operations."

"IT administrators are responding to the current economic climate by consolidating IT infrastructure to achieve economies of scale, and finding new ways to more efficiently manage their operations," said John Webster, Senior Analyst and Founder of Data Mobility Group. "Bus-Tech's MAS offers IT administrators the opportunity to meet both of those objectives by consolidating both mainframe and open systems secondary storage on to fewer, more scalable, and more cost-effective storage platforms."

Alternate Pathing provides the ability for multiple ESCON adapters to be viewed and utilized as a single connection. As a load-balancing example, if one ESCON connection was overburdened with traffic, alternate pathing would direct that data flow to the second ESCON connection. In the unlikely event of an ESCON failure, the surviving ESCON would provide access to all of the virtual tape volumes.

The number of virtual drives supported by a single ESCON connection has been increased from 16 to 32. This is more of a configuration convenience than a performance enhancement. It allows multiple MAS units to be cross-configured. In the event of a MAS failure, the surviving MAS would have to restart the virtual tape application under a previously defined alternate configuration. This would allow access to all of the virtual tape volumes previously serviced by two MAS units.

About Bus-Tech, Inc.

Bus-Tech, Inc. founded in 1987 is the industry's leading provider of state-of-the-art connectivity solution for the data center to Original Equipment Manufacturers. The company's powerful suite of adapter and platform solution satisfy even the most rugged demands of data processing professionals for high-bandwidth, high-availability, and high-performance connectivity. With more than 15,000 installed sites worldwide, Bus-Tech is a recognized leader in the data center interconnect market. Headquartered in Burlington, MA, the company is privately held with location around the world. For more information about Bus-Tech and its products, please visit the Bus-Tech World Wide Web site at http://www.bustech.com, send e-mail to [e-mail] or call 800-284-3172 or 781-272-8200.

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