Sun Adds New De-Duplication Capabilities to Leading Virtual Tape Library Storage Portfolio

ORLANDO--(EON:Enhanced Online News)--Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced a significant update to its growing storage and virtual tape library (VTL) product portfolio that includes the addition of powerful, low-cost data de-duplication technologies. Sun has seen a staggering 300% year-over growth rate of its open systems VTL products since introduction in March, 2007 and is quickly gaining share in the fastest growing market segment in the storage industry. Enterprise datacenter customers and channel partners have been impressed with how Sun's highly scalable, eco-efficient VTL solutions can help securely back-up growing data volumes and lower total cost of ownership.

“We'll continue to deliver innovative storage solutions that leverage open platforms to drive breakthrough economics for our customer businesses.”

Developers can download open storage technology within OpenSolaris(TM) for free at: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/storage/

Today's announcement furthers Sun's effort to deliver better economics for customers through open platforms that leverage open source storage communities. New Sun StorageTek(TM) VTL Plus, expanded capacities of the Sun StorageTek(TM) VTL Value line and the addition of data de-duplication offerings in new Sun StorageTek(TM) VTL Prime further demonstrate Sun's innovative approach to virtual storage that is based upon the integration of open platforms like the Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS), innovative tape and disk storage technologies and the world's most reliable servers.

Enterprise data is growing exponentially and today's businesses need a way to dramatically reduce cost and, at the same time, back-up data in an ever-shrinking window and meet service-level agreements. What's more, many businesses' enterprise data is highly dispersed: 50 to 60% of all data resides in remote offices that do not have the staff to back-up data properly or, in many instances, not at all. Data de-duplication lowers overall cost of physical storage by storing only the unique data, as just one copy of the data is retained.

“Our customers need to store and back-up increasing amounts of data longer with faster recovery periods. The success of our VTL solutions in the market is proof that Sun delivers unmatched value through the combination of industry-leading platforms and high performance storage and compute systems,” said David Kenyon, vice-president, product marketing and business operations, Storage Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “We'll continue to deliver innovative storage solutions that leverage open platforms to drive breakthrough economics for our customer businesses.”

Sun Partners Love Sun StorageTek VTL End-to-End Solutions

Partners have been instrumental to the fast customer adoption of the Sun StorageTek VTL family. Channel partners like Dewpoint and others have seen fast customer adoption for end-to-end, highly scalable Sun VTL solutions that leverage Solaris OS and other common software platforms for easy-integration.

"We really like the Sun VTL family of products" said Tony McGary, Storage Practice Lead for Dewpoint, a Sun Executive Partner. "The new data de-duplication features make the effectiveness and value even better. With VTL Value and VTL Plus, we can offer something that fits all our customers' needs-from the small office to the large enterprise. Because all versions run on the same software platform, it is easy for our customers to understand."

Common Platform Extends Sun VTL Portfolio

Sun has built a common platform for the expansion of its virtual tape storage offerings, which has seen exponential growth in customer adoption since introduction a year ago. This common platform has yielded the latest generation of Sun StorageTek VTL Plus that delivers double the performance and tighter integration with backup applications and the expansion of Sun StorageTek(TM) VTL Value capacity to 12, 24, 36 and 48 terabytes.

In addition, as the first data de-duplication solution from Sun, Sun StorageTek VTL Prime can be used as a stand alone VTL or may be implemented with Sun StorageTek VTL Plus to provide a cost-effective, tiered data protection architecture. This new solution is a simple, cost effective way to synchronize and consolidate the backup process for remote-office and large enterprise environments. Sun StorageTek VTL Prime replicates only the unique data to significantly reduce the bandwidth requirements and enable cost effective disaster recovery and business continuity. This new solution helps customers to be more Eco-friendly, lower TCO and shrink storage requirements through the use of virtualization technologies.

“The VTL market is one of the fastest growing segments in the industry today, and customers need highly scalable and innovative solutions that can easily fit into their existing backup processes and infrastructure,” said Bernie Wu, vice-president of business development, FalconStor. “The new Sun StorageTek VTL Prime is yet another example of how the Sun-FalconStor strategic partnership will provide customers an enterprise class, well-integrated data protection and deduplication solution.”

Pricing and Availability

Early access units of the Sun Storage VTL Prime are available this month and starts at a list price of less than US$40K.

For more information, please see www.sun.com/vtlprime

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries an on the Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Sun StorageTek , OpenSolaris and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

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