Crossroads and Tantia Partner to Provide Sun-to-Mainframe Connectivity.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2001

Solution Provides Connectivity and Speeds Data Movement Between Sun

Servers and S/390 Mainframes

Crossroads Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CRDS), a leading provider of connectivity for storage networking solutions, and Tantia Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of BETA Systems Software AG, today announced an alliance to provide a solution that enables channel-level connectivity for Sun(TM) Enterprise(TM) servers running Solaris(TM).

Sun Solaris servers have moved alongside the mainframe, extending enterprises via e-commerce and other Internet and intranet solutions. The advanced channel-to-channel file transfer solution available from Tantia and Crossroads allows connection between System 390 (S/390) environments and open systems to co-exist without straining network bandwidth.

"Crossroads provides fast, reliable and easy to install links between the Sun platforms and enterprise class mainframes," said Larry Sanders, president and COO of Crossroads Systems. "By combining Crossroads and Tantia products, Solaris users can take advantage of fast file transfer capability, high availability and high reliability backup and recovery solutions."

Tantia Channel Express, Tantia Harbor Backup and Tantia High-Speed File Transfer (HFT) combined with Crossroads' 6950 PCI-to-ESCON or 6989 SBus-to-ESCON Channel Interfaces allow large-scale storage environments to be efficiently managed. These solutions protect business-critical information and are designed to ensure application availability to users at all times.

"The information explosion and the co-location of servers and mainframes in the data center have created a demand to move large volumes of data between S/390 environments and open systems," said Victor Walker, president and CEO of Tantia Technologies. "With Crossroads' mainframe connectivity capabilities, Tantia's software allows users to take data transfer activities off the network, reducing network traffic, eliminating network bandwidth restrictions and substantially reducing the time required for large data transfers from hours, or even days, down to minutes."

Crossroads and Tantia are both exhibiting at CeBIT, March 22-28, 2001, in Hannover, Germany. Crossroads is demonstrating server-free backup in Hall 6, Stand H34. Tantia is exhibiting with BETA in Hall 3, Stand C46. CeBIT is the world's leading showplace for information technology, telecommunications and office automation.

About Tantia Technologies

Tantia Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BETA Systems Software AG, provides leading-edge enterprise backup and recovery solutions that fully leverage Storage Area Network (SAN) technology. The company is comprised of enterprise SAN experts who bring mainframe technology to the Open Systems market, delivering ultra-high availability, intelligent SAN solutions. Tantia will build and market the storage solutions originally developed by HARBOR Systems, which was acquired by BETA Systems in December 1998. HARBOR Systems was one of the pioneers in the SAN market and continues its leadership role as Tantia Technologies. Its extensive product line provides completely integrated, enterprise-wide storage-management solutions for heterogeneous IT storage environments. For more information, call 800/531-7111 or visit the company's website at http://www.tantiatech.com.

About Crossroads Systems, Inc.

With headquarters in Austin, Texas, Crossroads Systems (Nasdaq:CRDS) is a leading global provider of connectivity for storage networks regardless of technology or location. Crossroads enables protocol-independent connectivity at gigabit speeds for a wide range of devices that scale for small businesses to global enterprises. Crossroads' products are in solutions from ADIC, ATL, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, McDATA, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, Unisys, ACAL, Bell Micro, Cranel, Datalink and Tech Data. Crossroads is a voting member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the InfiniBand(SM) Trade Association. For employment opportunities and more information about Crossroads Systems, please visit www.crossroads.com or call 800/643-7148.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are: Crossroads' limited operating history which makes it difficult to accurately predict revenues and budget for expenses for future periods; the extent of Crossroads' future operating losses and negative cash flow; the impact on Crossroads' result on operations due to changes in the Securities and Exchange Commission's accounting standards, including the implementation of SAB 101, with respect to revenue recognition; the dependence of Crossroads' business on the storage area network market which is new and unpredictable; Crossroads' ability to develop new and enhanced products that achieve market acceptance; the continuation of Crossroads' successful relationships with its limited number of OEM customers; Crossroads' ability to retain and recruit key personnel to manage its business successfully; the quarterly fluctuations of Crossroads' operating results; Crossroads' ability to successfully achieve the benefits of the acquisition of Polaris Communications and any subsequent acquisition or strategic relationship; and that Crossroads' stock price could be volatile regardless of Crossroads' actual financial performance and other factors detailed in Crossroads' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on 10-Q.