Computer Network Technology and IBM to enhance disaster recovery capabilities; IBM extends its leadership in High-End data availability.

MINNEAPOLIS and SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1995--Computer Network Technology Corporation (CNT) and IBM today announced that they will collaborate in developing and marketing products that enable IBM System/390 customers to maintain up-to-date copies of their data at multiple locations connected by telephone lines anywhere in the world.

This extends IBM's 3990 Storage Control Model 6 Remote Copy capability, which is intended to help customers recover quickly and completely from unplanned outages or disasters at a data center. The new capability will be especially useful for those customers whose data protection requirements call for the ability to maintain copies at distances beyond the 40 kilometer (25 miles) limit currently reachable with direct-channel connections, or who are prevented for various reasons from laying underground cables.

Under the agreement, CNT's CHANNELink products will support the Extended Remote Copy function of the 3990 Model 6. IBM had previously announced that this function will enable data to be copied over ESCON (Enterprise System Connection) distances of up to 40 kilometers. The CNT CHANNELink systems will make it possible for users of IBM System/390 computers to make copies of their data at locations separated by virtually unlimited distances.

IBM has pioneered the development of technology aimed at providing customers with high levels of data availability and is a leader in helping them maintain the integrity of their data in the face of service disruptions. The 3990 Model 6, combined with the overall fault-tolerant design and RAID 5 technology of the IBM RAMAC Array DASD storage, provides the industry's highest level of data availability while sustaining high performance.

"Long-distance Remote Copy complements the 'campus distance' Remote Copy announced earlier," said Ed Zschau, general manager of IBM's Storage Systems Division. "It also helps customers leverage their investments in the 3990. By combining CNT's intelligent network technology with IBM's storage subsystem technology and storage management software, we will provide a leading-edge disaster recovery solution for customers whose computing operations are spread out around the world."

CNT's Storage Networking Solutions provide high-performance interconnection of mainframes, servers and remote peripheral devices. CNT's products assist companies with the implementation of disaster recovery, data migration, client/server backup and data mirroring applications. Users can install storage devices at unlimited distances from the central processor without requiring any special mainframe or server software. CNT's technology connects to a wide range of telecommunications links consisting of dedicated and switched architectures and can support low or high bandwidth facilities.

"Combining our networking expertise with IBM's storage solution for Extended Remote Copy will provide our customers with a high-performance, reliable DASD networking capability beyond normal channel distances," said Mac Lewis, CNT's president and CEO.

The 3990 Model 6 offers a number of functions to reduce a customer's risk of losing data and to allow them to have nearly continuous access to that data. IBM pioneered this in the mainframe arena with the Dual Copy function, which provides RAID 1 capability. This function has been available with the 3990 since 1990. Data is automatically copied to a second volume and is maintained as an up-to-date copy of the primary volume. If the primary volume becomes unavailable, requests for data are automatically switched to the second volume. IBM's RAMAC products now provide comparable availability at a much lower price. These capabilities protect the customer from the failure of a single disk drive.

Another 3990 function, Concurrent Copy, maximizes both application and data availability by allowing the 3990 customer access to data even while it is being backed up. Data backup continues to be a requirement to protect the customer from human and program errors that damage or destroy data.

Remote Copy -- which was announced for the 3990 Model 6 in March 1994 -- provides two alternatives for disaster recovery in environments where customers require faster recovery with much less data loss than is provided by conventional backup techniques. These functions are Extended Remote Copy and Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy.

Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy is designed for customers who require two copies of the data separated by ESCON-connectable distances, with protection against the loss of one copy of data from a disaster at another site. No systems software is required with Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy and distances of up to 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) between sites are supported.

Extended Remote Copy is designed for customers who need a high level of performance on their primary system, and/or need copies at locations separated by distances longer than those supported by ESCON connections. It utilizes IBM's Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS/MVS) software and can support distances of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles). The addition of CNT's CHANNELink capability will enhance Extended Remote Copy so that it can be supported over telephone lines at nearly unlimited distances.

CNT develops, markets and supports connectivity software and high-performance networking products under the CHANNELink, Brixton and Convergence trademarks. Large organizations use CNT solutions in their information networks to address constantly evolving enterprise-wide networking needs. In addition, many of the world's largest computer manufacturers have recognized the significant savings and flexibility provided by CNT's products and have integrated CNT technology into their connectivity solutions. CNT's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol CMNT.

IBM is the world's largest supplier of computer storage products. Through its Storage Systems Division, the company provides a full line of storage solutions for IBM computing systems, for OEMs and for commercial distribution. Its offerings include disk drives, arrays and subsystems; magnetic tape drives, subsystems and automated libraries; optical drives and libraries; storage controllers and related storage management software. -0-

Note to Editors: CHANNELink is a registered trademark and Brixton and Convergence are trademarks of Computer Network Technology Corporation.

CONTACT: IBM Storage Systems Division

Carol Keslar, 408/256-9451

or

Computer Network Technology

John Brintnall, 612/797-6110