Candera Sets the Bar with Authentic Multi-Vendor Interoperability; Gives Storage Managers Independence to Choose Any Switch, Any Storage, Any Server.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2003

Candera(TM) Inc., developer of the industry's first enterprise-grade network storage controller, powered by the revolutionary Candera architecture, today announced its ambitious interoperability program. The company's ongoing interoperability program spans four areas: designing interoperability into the Candera architecture from the ground up; participating in developer programs and API exchanges with leading vendors; investing in a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art interoperability lab; and building interfaces on existing and emerging industry standards. Successful interoperability has already been proven in Candera's interoperability lab as well as at Fortune 1000 beta customer sites.

"Candera's comprehensive interoperability program allows them to deliver on multi-vendor interoperability today, which is great news for my organization, because one of our biggest pains is dealing with multi-vendor equipment that doesn't always play nice," said a Candera beta customer and chief architect at a Fortune 500 financial services company. "What's really pressing for me is to devise an architecture to use across storage, switches and servers from a number of different vendors. I need a central point of control in the network to help me manage heterogeneous SANs, provision storage through policies, increase asset and human capital efficiency, and lower my company's overall cost of operation."

To date, Candera has formed partnerships with more than a dozen vendors of Fibre Channel switches, storage arrays, host bus adapters (HBAs), and software. Candera is committed to working with companies such as McDATA through the OpenReady Developer Program and belongs to a number of programs sponsored by leading vendors, including the Hitachi TrueNorth Developers Program, the EMC Developers Program, and the Veritas Enabled Program. Through collaborative partnerships and its own extensive interoperability testing, Candera's network storage controller gives storage managers unprecedented control by delivering authentic interoperability with other components of the storage network, including:

-- Storage -- EMC (NYSE: EMC), Hitachi Data Systems (NYSE: HIT),

HP (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), LSI (NYSE: LSI), MTI (Nasdaq:

MTIC), StorageTek (NYSE: STK), Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW), various

JBODs

-- Fibre Channel Switches -- Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), McDATA

(Nasdaq: MCDT), QLogic (Nasdaq: QLGC)

-- Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters -- Emulex (NYSE: ELX), HP,

IBM, JNI (Nasdaq: JNIC), LSI, QLogic

-- Operating Systems -- AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Windows

-- Volume Managers -- HP, IBM, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Sun,

Veritas (Nasdaq: VRTS)

-- Storage Software Applications -- Microsoft Cluster Server,

Multipath I/O, Server Appliance Kit; Sun Alternate Pathing;

Veritas NetBackup, Cluster Server, Dynamic Multipathing

Candera achieves this unprecedented level of interoperability through the patent-pending Candera architecture, which models the behaviors and internal topologies of heterogeneous SAN components. Candera engineers use object-oriented techniques to quickly add support for additional 3rd party products, often with only a few days of development time. A sophisticated internal inference engine uses these object models to optimize interaction between Candera systems and other devices.

Candera has developed automated test regimens, comprehensive procedures and over 700 interoperability test cases for the sole purpose of identifying and resolving interoperability issues. The scope of interoperability tests ranges from industry standards compliance to maintaining proper behavior and full data integrity under heavy load, even with error injection. This rigorous process identifies extreme corner cases, and allows Candera to assure authentic interoperability.

"Enterprise storage managers have been saying that they want the independence to choose any switch, any storage, any server that best fits their requirement," said S. "Sundi" Sundaresh, president and CEO of Candera. "Authentic interoperability means much more than merely being able to see other devices and pass Fibre Channel frames. Customers require characterization of the capabilities of third party devices, efficient utilization of their capabilities and flawless operation, even in the midst of I/O error storms. The patent-pending Candera architecture is the first to deliver on this requirement. As storage networks grow, the requirement for multi-vendor integration and interoperability will grow apace, so we will continue to invest in extending our unique multi-vendor technology."

From the start, the company designed interoperability into the Candera architecture by implementing an open platform with standards-based APIs that facilitate third party application integration. Candera aggressively sought APIs from leading vendors to augment its development efforts, ensuring authentic interoperability with detailed intelligence about the storage, switches and HBAs to which Candera systems are connected.

"Hitachi Data Systems is pleased that Candera has joined the TrueNorth Developers Program," said James Bahn, director of Software Product Marketing at Hitachi Data Systems. "Candera's architecture is designed to provide customers with more control and lower cost of operation for heterogeneous storage resources."

"Candera is solving complex storage management problems by adding intelligence to the SAN infrastructure," said Joel McGill, manager of Product Marketing and Alliances at LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc. "LSI Logic Storage Systems is pleased to welcome Candera to our Certified Compatible program, which requires rigorous testing so customers can be confident in the interoperability of our products."

Candera is an active contributor to the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and is an avid supporter of SNIA's SMI initiative and the Bluefin specification. Wayne Rickard, vice president Advanced Storage Technology at Seagate, and SNIA Technical Council chair, noted, "Interoperability is a very difficult problem that is by no means fully solved, despite the fact that it is a fundamental requirement from end users. Candera's support of standards and extraordinary investment in developing technology that knits together complex multi-vendor networks is the kind of innovation data center storage managers desperately need."

About Candera

Candera Inc. is developing the industry's first enterprise-grade network storage controller. Candera is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and is on the web at www.candera.com.

Note to Editors: Candera, the Candera logo, and Manage Storage Your Way are trademarks of Candera Inc. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.