HP and VERITAS to Accelerate HP-UX 11i Virtualization; Integrated Solutions to Help Customers Increase System Utilization and Availability.

PALO ALTO, Calif. & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) and VERITAS Software Corporation (Nasdaq:VRTS) today announced an expansion of their long-standing alliance with the naming of VERITAS' products as HP's preferred file system and volume management solutions for HP-UX 11i environments.

Under a multi-year agreement between the two companies, HP plans to OEM select VERITAS Storage Foundation(TM) products in order to extend the industry-leading virtualization and high availability of HP-UX 11i and HP Serviceguard software and further ease customer evolution to standards-based HP Integrity and HP 9000 servers.

The companies plan to integrate key products, including VERITAS Storage Foundation Cluster File System and Storage Foundation for Oracle(R) RAC, with HP Serviceguard. HP Serviceguard protects mission-critical applications from a wide variety of hardware and software failures. VERITAS Storage Foundation software provides simultaneous access to storage from multiple servers, enabling load sharing between servers and optimized use of shared storage devices.

"HP's strategic alignment with VERITAS for clustering file services is a welcome change in HP's roadmap, since there is no need to re-invent the wheel," said Gene Batan, senior vice president and head of Systems and Information Technology, Commerzbank USA. "VERITAS has a proven track record in developing highly available software solutions and we believe that this partnership serves HP customers well."

The integrated solutions will be key elements of the HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) for HP-UX 11i. Tight integration of virtualization with high availability enables HP VSE customers to automatically expand and contract server resources in real time based on business priorities and maintain service levels in the event of unexpected downtime.

"Our collaboration with VERITAS helps us to deliver on our Adaptive Enterprise strategy and assists our UNIX customers in their evolution to next-generation platforms," said Rich Marcello, senior vice president and general manager, Business Critical Servers, HP. "The thousands of customers running HP Serviceguard on HP-UX 11i today will gain access to VERITAS software -- directly from HP -- and close integration, a simplified purchasing process and cooperative support."

Building on its expanded relationship with VERITAS, HP plans to enhance the HP VSE with a single virtual view that provides common management and optimization of virtualized server and storage resources -- within a single server and across clusters, including clusters based on HP Serviceguard integrated with VERITAS Cluster File System. HP will also simplify the management of virtualized environments with tools that visualize the relationship between workloads and virtualized resources.

HP plans to offer the integrated solutions as software bundles on HP-UX 11i v2 in the third calendar quarter of 2005. The new bundles replace HP's previous plans to bring TruCluster technology and Advanced File System to HP-UX 11i v3. The companies anticipate that this will accelerate by about one year the delivery of similar capabilities to HP-UX 11i customers and those transitioning from Tru64 UNIX(R).

"HP's decision to make VERITAS the preferred file system and volume management offering for highly available HP-UX 11i environments opens up exciting new capabilities for our joint customers, and is a strong validation of VERITAS' ability to deliver industry-leading infrastructure solutions that support customers' heterogeneous environments, including HP-UX 11i and other leading platforms," said Kris Hagerman, executive vice president, Storage and Server Management Group, VERITAS. "VERITAS is committed to working closely with HP to deliver products and services to help customers quickly and easily deploy the solution to enhance their mission-critical, highly available application environments, including Oracle RAC."

In related news, HP is expanding its successful Alpha RetainTrust program for Tru64 UNIX customers. The program will now provide technical assistance and best practices to help implement the HP Serviceguard with VERITAS bundles as part of customers' transition to HP-UX 11i v2 on HP Integrity and HP 9000 servers. HP continues its HP 9000 Evolution Program, including workshops, tools, best practices and other incentives, to provide a smooth transition to standards-based HP Integrity servers.

About VERITAS Software

VERITAS Software, one of the 10 largest software companies in the world, is a leading provider of software to enable utility computing. In a utility computing model IT resources are aligned with business needs, and business applications are delivered with optimal performance and availability on top of shared computing infrastructure, minimizing hardware and labor costs. With 2003 revenues of $1.75 billion, VERITAS delivers products and services for data protection, storage & server management, high availability and application performance management that are used by 99 percent of the Fortune 500. More information about VERITAS Software can be found at www.veritas.com.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31, 2004, HP revenue totaled $79.9 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Oracle is a registered U.S. trademark of Oracle Corp., Redwood City, Calif. VERITAS, the VERITAS Logo, and VERITAS Storage Foundation are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.

This press release may include estimates and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements relating to projections of future product uses and development. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk that the companies will not gain market acceptance of their products and services, the risk that the companies' collaboration will not provide new market opportunities for both companies, the risk that HP will not be able to offer the companies' solutions as software bundles within the expected time frame, the risk that the companies will not be able to successfully integrate their products, and the risk that the companies will not manage their businesses effectively, that could cause the actual results the companies achieve to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. For more information regarding potential risks, see the "Factors That May Affect Future Results" section of VERITAS' most recent report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004 on file with the SEC, and the "Factors that Could Affect Future Results" section of HP's most recent report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2004 on file with the SEC. The companies undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected development, performance or rankings of products or services; statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the development, performance and market acceptance of products and services and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended July 31, 2004 and other reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

(C) 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.