Comdisco Announces Strategic Commitment to Re-Engineering and Optimization of Its Continuity Facilities Infrastructure.

ROSEMONT, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 1998--

New Atlanta and Minneapolis facilities highlight first phase of

infrastructure re-engineering to support new services based on

emerging technologies; Industry-leading NT and Advanced Recovery

Services capabilities announced

Comdisco, Inc., (NYSE:CDO), a Rosemont, IL.-based technology services company, today announced a significant commitment to enhancing and optimizing its network of global business continuity facilities. The company plans to reconfigure many of its facilities to provide enhanced support for emerging technologies such as NT and storage area networks, and provide new delivery capabilities for remote data mirroring products from EMC, IBM, Hitachi and Oracle.

"New technologies are changing the way our customers are using IT to support their business goals," said John Jackson, general manager, Comdisco Continuity Services. "As the leader in the continuity services industry, we have a responsibility to help companies cost effectively protect their investments in those technologies and help them support anytime, anywhere computing. Our goal is to optimize our facilities infrastructure and maximize our delivery of integrated end-to-end continuity services. We will be better focused, more profitable, more nimble, and able to respond more quickly as a result."

Comdisco is completing the first phase of a process to review and reconfigure a number of its worldwide facilities. The process is expected to include adding new facilities, re-sizing and upgrading others, and closing certain facilities as needs are understood. The combination of two existing buildings into one new facility in Atlanta is already underway, and two facilities in Minneapolis will be consolidated into one larger complex. The company is also reviewing client requirements for additional space in the Northeast.

New Facilities

Atlanta and Minneapolis-area customers, and customers who subscribe to Comdisco's item processing and trading floor continuity services will be among the first to benefit from the infrastructure optimization. Set to open in March 1999, the new 132,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in the Atlanta metro will feature CAT-5 wiring, redundant power feeds, high-end item processing capabilities, will support a rapid expansion capability using Comdisco's Mobile Recovery Facilities and provide high-capacity network access with SONET-based technology. The new Minneapolis facility will feature the Midwest's only trading floor recovery facility with market data feeds from all major vendors, supplying connectivity to major financial exchanges in North America. In addition to the 200 trading floor recovery positions, the facility will also house 100 Workarea Recovery positions and offers remote testing capabilities to customer sites and all Comdisco facilities in North America.

New Services

As part of the infrastructure optimization, Comdisco will establish "data bunkers" throughout its network of facilities. These data bunkers, designed to support emerging Advanced Recovery Services, will be strategically located within continuity facilities nationwide to provide customers with enhanced protection of and accessibility to their mission-critical data.

Additionally, Comdisco will install over 100 Compaq ProLiant 7000 SMP servers with Pentium II Xeon processors in its East Coast, Midwest and West Coast facilities. This approach to the protection and recovery of server farms marks the industry's first large scale, concentrated deployment of Xeon processing capabilities in disaster recovery facilities.

"Our infrastructure optimization involves committing the physical infrastructure, people, processes and tools necessary to support the diversity and complexity of our customers' information systems," said Jackson. "These infrastructure and capability enhancements will enable us to deliver better service more cost effectively, and continue to support our customers' growing technology and continuity needs, just as we have for the past two decades."

Comdisco (NYSE:CDO) is a technology services company and a leader in providing infrastructure management and optimization services, which are the underlying technological components and services necessary to deliver information and applications anytime, anywhere, without delay or interruption. Comdisco provides the key elements of infrastructure management, including desktop management services, managed network services, business continuity services, financial management services, and the software tools to support these areas.

Comdisco's revenue for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1998, was $3.2 billion. For more information on Comdisco, call 800-272-9792 or visit Comdisco's Web site at www.comdisco.com.

Comdisco and its logos are registered trademarks of Comdisco, Inc. Other names are trademarks of their respective companies.