Imation Delivers On Industry Expectations With Its Independent Storage Consulting and Testing Capabilities.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

PALM DESERT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2001

Engagements with leading storage vendors and end-users demonstrate

successful first year of operation for Imation's Professional

Services Storage Consulting Group and Storage Networking Lab

Today at Storage Networking World, Imation Corp. (NYSE:IMN), a worldwide leader in data storage and information management, highlighted consulting and testing engagements from the past year of operations for its Professional Services, Storage Consulting, and Storage Networking Lab. These engagements demonstrate how Imation is being recognized within the storage industry as the leading independent source for storage consulting and storage networking testing.

Last year, Imation launched its Professional Services, Storage Consulting, and opened the industry's first independent, fully equipped storage networking lab. In the past year, Imation has conducted numerous storage consulting engagements including assessments, design, and proof-of-concept testing for leading storage networking and software vendors such as CNT, SANavigator, Dell, Nishan Systems, and Shugart Technology. In addition, Imation has also conducted storage consulting and testing for end-users in the following industries: telecommunications, retail, advertising, hotel and hospitality, investment banking, automotive and aerospace, medical devices and newspaper publishing.

"In June of 2000 we launched Imation's Storage Networking Lab and Storage Consulting services to establish Imation as the industry's independent storage consulting expert," said Steve Ladwig, senior vice president, Imation Corp., and president, Imation Data Storage and Information Management. "Since then, we have met and exceeded our goals, and are thrilled with the support we have received from the industry."

Storage Consulting

Imation's Storage Consulting assessment and design services provide customers and vendors in-depth and unbiased expertise in current storage networking practices. Imation's team of storage architects and engineers offers customers independent, real-world expertise, as well as the hands-on experience obtained in the Storage Networking Lab with a breadth of storage networking technologies.

"We selected Imation Storage Consulting to assist us with the assessment and design efforts on a complete redesign of our current infrastructure. They did an in-depth analysis of our requirements that was right on target. From that they put together an end-to-end enterprise solution consisting of dynamic storage scalability, high availability, and an enterprise backup strategy that was perfectly mapped to our requirements," said Kevin Wedel, vice president, director of imaging, Capps Digital.

Proof-of-Concept Testing

Imation's Storage Networking Lab offers customers the ability to test nearly any multi-vendor configuration. Customers can connect to over 150 pieces of equipment representing more than 40 different manufacturers in an "any-to-any" configuration. Without disrupting a company's internal IT infrastructure, Imation's Storage Networking Lab allows customers to determine whether or not a proposed SAN architecture will meet its business objectives.

"With the help of the engineers and the expertise at Imation, we were able to quickly replicate in Imation's lab the exact storage networking environment we had at our office," said Jim Prystal, systems engineer, IT infrastructure for the Star Tribune, serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. "This allowed us do proof-of-concept and interoperability testing of the equipment we were looking at purchasing from various vendors. It also helped us to make a more informed purchasing decision. Without this testing, we would have had to install the equipment at our location and hope it worked. After working with Imation's lab engineers, we knew the equipment would work in our environment before we installed it."

"We tapped Imation for its independent storage consulting and testing expertise and as a result we are able to extend our capabilities to simulate and test nearly any storage environment," said Lois Rouder, senior manger, Dell. "Our relationship with Imation has complemented Dell's rapid growth in storage networking engagements by helping us provide our customers with independent testing and validation of their specific application environments."

Faster Time-to-Market

According to a recent Enterprise Storage Group report, with so many new vendors releasing products in the market, it is crucial for storage vendors to demonstrate to potential customers that they have adequately tested these new product offerings for performance, proof-of-concept and interoperability. For many vendors, it is impossible to adequately test within their own labs. Outsourcing this service to independent facilities, such as Imation's Storage Networking Lab, provides those vendors an opportunity to decrease their time-to-market.

"Imation's Storage Networking Lab helped to speed up development of future OS versions of FIBREcalc+," said Richard Brechtlein, president and CEO of Shugart Technology, Inc. "Testing Windows NT and Windows 2000 versions of FIBREcalc+ at the lab accomplished in one week what otherwise could have taken us several months."

"The broad scope of the Imation facility gave us the ability to simulate nearly any customer SAN topology SANavigator is likely to exist within," said Robert Wright, president and COO of SANavigator, Inc. "This experience at Imation, combined with our internal testing and certification programs with partners, gives our customers confidence that SANavigator will perform as expected in even the most complex SAN installations."

"With all the new products coming out in the storage networking space, more and more companies take greater measures to test product performance in an independent environment before rolling them out to the market," said Mike Hogan, Storage Consulting Practice Manager, Imation Professional Services, Storage Consulting. "The Imation Storage Networking Lab plays an important role in storage hardware and software vendors' product-development cycles and provides independent storage expertise and rigorous testing against a massive inventory of equipment. We provide storage vendors with the most comprehensive independent test for product performance and interoperability verification."

Independent, Third-Party Validation

The Imation Storage Networking Lab allows customers to test the actual performance throughput of various configurations. According to the recent Enterprise Storage Group report, the industry has desperately needed more vendor-independent testing labs where vendors--especially smaller ones--can rent time and test their products with large, expensive systems such as an EMC Symmetrix.

According to Tom Clark, director of technical marketing for Nishan, there were several reasons Nishan Systems selected the Imation Storage Networking Lab to test its switches. "Given our need for independent substantiation, we needed a credible third party to facilitate the testing. Imation is recognized by the industry as a truly independent lab and provided the storage expertise and the large inventory of storage equipment needed to put the Nishan product through the meticulous testing paces it required."

About Storage Networking World

Storage Networking World, the industry's largest gathering of storage networking professionals and thought leaders, is co-owned and co-produced by IDG's Computerworld and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). This premier event, taking place April 9-11, 2001 at the Marriott Desert Springs, Palm Desert, Calif., offers both vendor and user communities the opportunities to explore today's storage technology market and help develop the future of storage networking solutions. The latest conference agenda and program information are available online at www.computerworld.com/snw.

About Imation Storage Consulting and Storage Networking Lab

Imation Storage Consulting offers customers independent assessment, design, and proof-of-concept testing. The storage architects and storage engineers are highly skilled in the full array of storage networking technologies and concepts. This coupled with the Imation Storage Networking Lab capabilities offers customers end-to-end services for storage infrastructure solutions.

The Imation Storage Networking Lab, located at Imation headquarters in Oakdale, Minnesota, is a world-class facility that offers vendor independent testing and services to help companies and equipment manufacturers develop and evaluate data storage solutions in an objective environment. Imation's Storage Networking Lab provides a hands-on testing environment that makes integrating storage networking solutions into business environments as risk free and cost-effective as possible.

About Imation Corp.

A global technology company, Imation Corp. supplies a variety of products and services worldwide, specializing in data storage and information management, color management and imaging solutions. In 2000, the Company reported revenues of $1.2 billion from continuing operations. As of December 31, 2000, the Company employed approximately 4,300 people worldwide. Additional information about Imation is available on the Company's website at http://www.imation.com, or by calling Imation toll-free at 1-888-466-3456. To receive recent earnings news releases, corporate information and related shareholder services, call Imation's toll-free shareholder information line at 1-888-IMN-NYSE (1-888-466-6973).

Certain information contained in this news release, which does not relate to historical financial information may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results in the future to differ materially from its historical results and those presently anticipated or projected. Among these factors are the Company's ability to meet its cost reduction and revenue growth targets, its ability to implement its restructuring program on a timely basis and to achieve the projected benefits, its ability to introduce new offerings in a timely manner, the competitive pricing environment, foreign currency fluctuations, the ability of Imation to secure adequate supply of certain high demand products, the ready availability and price of energy, the market acceptance of newly introduced product and service offerings, the rate of decline for certain existing products as well as various factors set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.