Features - Storage Innovations:

HP WINDOWS-BASED NAS SYSTEMS ALLOW FOR MAJOR CONSOLIDATION

At the Microsoft TechEd 2004 conference, HP announced the immediate availability of the first network-attached storage (NAS) systems to consolidate Exchange Server 2003 data stores on Windows Storage Server 2003-based NAS systems. As a result, small- and medium-size business (SMB) customers can consolidate the number of file, print and Exchange servers -- enabling improved operational efficiency and reduced costs and management complexity by consolidating storage by as much as 50 percent.

HP is delivering this breakthrough capability in its HP StorageWorks NAS 2000s and 1200s systems, the first devices with the new Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack with support for Exchange Server 2003.

Also, HP announced an expansion of the "Easy-as-NAS" program, a joint initiative with Microsoft designed to assist channel partners in accelerating sales of HP's volume NAS devices targeting SMB customers. Additionally, HP announced an agreement with CommVault Systems to provide SMBs running Windows-based HP NAS devices with an integrated software suite for data management and protection.

"Microsoft's strong partnership with HP allows us to quickly bring to market innovative NAS devices that respond to customer demand for solutions that simplify the management of ever-growing data, especially mission-critical e-mail," said Marcus Schmidt, senior product manager of Windows Storage Server 2003 for Microsoft Corp. "General availability of the Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack with support for Exchange Server 2003 on HP StorageWorks NAS demonstrates the concept of 'integrated innovation,' helping customers do more with less across the Windows Server system. Companies save money and protect their data reliably and affordably in combination with HP's broad portfolio of Windows-based servers and storage products and the rich functionality offered by Volume Shadow Copy Service and Virtual Disk Service."

Users Praise HP NAS Ease And Simplicity

The Hill School, an exclusive East Coast preparatory school, deployed HP StorageWorks NAS 2000s devices with support for the Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack to unlock the value of its most important IT tool -- e-mail -- by easily and affordably offloading data from an e-mail application server onto HP StorageWorks NAS devices. The enhanced devices enable the Hill School to handle more than 100,000 e-mail messages in a 10 minute period, surpassing the school's reliability stress test.

"In our school, everything runs on e-mail, so it's our most mission- critical application," said Rick Bauer, chief information officer of The Hill School. "To me, the true benefits of the HP StorageWorks NAS are that it is easy to use, makes provisioning storage easier, provides more security, enables business continuity and allows for interoperability with Exchange Server 2003."

The Vista Solutions Group, a strategic storage consultancy for large enterprise customers, integrated the enhanced HP StorageWorks NAS 2000s to simplify the management of its IT resources.

"The HP NAS 2000s has been a rock-solid solution for our Windows file serving needs," said Brad Harley, storage solutions manager of Vista Solutions Group. "With the addition of Exchange Server functionality, it provides us with a single point of management for a large portion of our production data. The Exchange integration with the HP NAS 2000s was easy to implement and surpassed our performance and reliability expectations."

HP's close work with Microsoft has helped to accelerate market adoption of Windows-based NAS, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the total NAS shipments for 2003. According to IDC's latest quarterly results, HP moved into the No. 3 market share position in NAS, posting a 49 percent sequential factory revenue share gain -- the highest for the quarter of any NAS vendor that IDC tracks.

"HP's multi-dimensional partnership with Microsoft and strategic decision to standardize its entire StorageWorks NAS portfolio on Windows Storage Server 2003 continues to deliver significant market growth and accelerate the adoption of Windows Storage Server over proprietary alternatives," said Harry Baeverstad, director of Network Attached Storage, Enterprise Storage and Servers for HP. "In addition to NAS, HP's portfolio of standards-based ProLiant servers, PCs and PDAs are designed to harness the power of Microsoft software allowing compatibility across the network while making IT simple and affordable for SMBs."

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, HP revenue totaled $76.8 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.