CLARiiON 'SAN-Ready' Remote Mirroring Safeguards Information Assets; Disaster-Tolerant Solution Leverages Off-the-Shelf Software to Lower Cost of Ownership.

SOUTHBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999--The CLARiiON Advanced Storage Division of Data General Corporation today announced CLARiiON Remote Mirroring, a set of hardware, software, and services designed to safeguard valuable corporate information assets against severe outages, including natural disasters and equipment and power failures. This is the first in a series of storage-centric solutions that CLARiiON will offer to the market.

CLARiiON Remote Mirroring, available on the "SAN-ready" FC5700 Fibre Channel RAID disk arrays as well as on the FC5500 and C3500 Series, provides data duplication services at a remote site, which can be located up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the primary data center. Leveraging already-installed operating system software, CLARiiON Remote Mirroring significantly lowers the cost of ownership in comparison to competitive offerings.

"CLARiiON is the first and continues to be the only major storage vendor to deliver full end-to-end Fibre Channel storage, the foundation for Storage Area Networks (SANs)," said Joanne Masingill, vice president of marketing for CLARiiON. "CLARiiON Remote Mirroring gives our customers the added assurance that they can protect their data and ensure that critical revenue-generating applications continue running, even under disastrous circumstances. This solution is ideal for application environments and industries that need seven-day-a-week, 24-hour- a-day data access, such as online transaction processing (OLTP), telecommunications, finance, and transportation, as well as the burgeoning e-commerce market."

"With a growing dependence on computer systems, today's business users have an ever increasing need for high availability," said Mark Ferelli, director, industry analysis at Strategic Research Corporation. "The ability of CLARiiON to remotely mirror data is an effective approach to disaster tolerance because it provides a complete copy of mission-critical data at a second site that would typically be unaffected by a disaster."

Added Ferelli, "Reliability and availability are no longer just luxuries, but are crucial to the survival and success of any business."

Customizable Solutions

A highly customizable solution, CLARiiON Remote Mirroring includes hardware and software, as well as consulting, design, and implementation services, enabling businesses to quickly tailor the most effective data protection approach for their environments. This powerful solution is available today on servers running Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows NT operating systems, with IBM AIX and HP/UX support to follow shortly. In contrast to other available solutions,

CLARiiON Remote Mirroring protects customers' software investment and lowers the total cost of ownership, including reduced support and maintenance costs, by employing already-installed host-based mirroring packages, such as Sun Enterprise Volume Manager and Windows NT Disk Administrator. In addition, CLARiiON Remote Mirroring is also compatible with industry-standard third-party packages, such as Veritas Volume Manager.

Options for Data Protection

CLARiiON Remote Mirroring is available in two options:

--Standard - Supports mirrored storage over distances of up to 30 kilometers by creating a separate storage zone at a remote site with duplicate host and storage configurations at each site

--High-Availability - Standard configuration plus dual links between sites

Based On Industry-Leading CLARiiON Full Fibre Channel Technology

Because of its exceptional data throughput, storage expandability, and connectivity features, Fibre Channel is a proven technology for addressing today's business challenges. Industry analysts point to Fibre Channel as the foundation for SANs. As such, the CLARiiON full-Fibre Channel RAID disk array products are "SAN-ready," enabling businesses to begin planning and deploying their SANs immediately.

CLARiiON Remote Mirroring is built upon the industry-leading CLARiiON FC5000 Series of Fibre Channel RAID disk arrays. CLARiiON FC5000 Series disk arrays provide the power and performance benefits of full Fibre Channel technology, with Fibre Channel connectivity from the host connection to the individual internal disk drives in the array. The FC5000 Series offers unique high-availability and performance features designed to support mission-critical operational environments. These features can make an immediate business impact by allowing applications to run faster and remain online despite failure of disks, storage processors, power supplies, or fans.

Pricing and Availability

End-user pricing for the CLARiiON Remote Mirroring standard option starts at $75,000, which includes host bus adapters, all of the necessary interconnecting hardware, a one-year 7x24 warranty with a specified 4-hour response, and professional services for all phases of planning, implementation, project management, and verification. CLARiiON Remote Mirroring products and services are available immediately.

About CLARiiON

The CLARiiON Advanced Storage Division of Data General Corporation is the first major vendor to ship end-to-end Fibre Channel disk arrays, the foundation for deployment of Storage Area Networks (SANs). Having shipped more than 80,000 disk arrays and over six petabytes (6,000 terabytes) of usable RAID-protected storage, CLARiiON is recognized as the world's leading storage supplier to OEMs. Our high-availability solutions, provided through resellers and direct from CLARiiON, feature flexible, scalable products for Windows NT and UNIX platforms. They include full Fibre Channel and SCSI disk arrays and Navisphere(R) storage management software. For more information about CLARiiON, visit our web site at www.clariion.com.

Data General (NYSE:DGN), based in Westborough, Massachusetts, is a major supplier of storage and enterprise computing solutions for customers worldwide. The company's products include CLARiiON Fibre Channel storage systems, high-end Microsoft Windows NT and UNIX-based AViiON servers, and related software and services. The company reported fiscal 1998 revenues of $1.5 billion. Additional information on the company, its products, and services is available on the Internet at www.dg.com.

AViiON, CLARiiON, and Navisphere are registered trademarks of Data General Corporation. All other brand and product names referenced in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.