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EqualLogic iSCSI SAN SupportsVirtual Data Center Infrastructures

Customers in Diverse Industries Choose EqualLogic Storage for Virtual Server Environments to Simplify IT Operations and Adapt Nimbly to Changing Business Demands

Nashua, N.H., May 2, 2006 - EqualLogic®, the leading provider of complete, enterprise-class iSCSI storage area networks (SANs), today announced increasing demand for its storage solution to support virtualized data center infrastructures. A growing number of companies from multiple industries worldwide are embracing EqualLogic storage and VMware server virtualization software together to create more responsive and easy-to-manage IT operations. Virtual data centers allow organizations to adapt fluidly to changing business demands, ensure business continuity and enhance organizational success.

"VMware's virtual infrastructure software and EqualLogic's virtualized SAN architecture are complementary technologies that deliver tremendous rewards. Because virtual servers require a simple, flexible and cost-effective virtual storage solution, our customers are choosing EqualLogic's enterprise-class iSCSI storage over traditional Fibre Channel systems," said John Joseph, vice president of marketing at EqualLogic. "EqualLogic storage arrays have proven to be the de facto iSCSI storage platform for VMware environments. The simple integration, flexibility and unmatched performance are driving more and more leading organizations worldwide to embrace our virtualized storage for the new data center."

EqualLogic's award-winning iSCSI SAN is a simple and cost-effective storage solution that provides the enterprise features, manageability and scalability required to handle the demanding storage needs of a VMware virtual infrastructure. By virtualizing storage within a SAN, EqualLogic significantly reduces complexity in VMware environments. Data volumes are automatically provisioned from a single, scalable pool of storage using a simple, intuitive interface. Even as workload demand shifts or migrates between virtual machines and their physical host servers, EqualLogic's virtualized SAN automatically applies storage resources where and when they are needed, without administrative intervention or manual tuning.

The combination of EqualLogic's PS Series SAN and VMware virtual infrastructure software delivers:

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
  A virtual infrastructure applies fewer resources to more work, aggregates resources into a manageable utility and reduces assets to purchase and manage.
  
  
• Enhanced Resource Flexibility
  EqualLogic and VMware scale infrastructure without impacting operations, allow quick response without disruption to address evolving requirements (growth, performance and capacity) and simplify repurposing of older assets.
  
  
• Reduced IT Complexity
  The virtual data center simplifies deployment, management and growth; minimizes application downtime due to infrastructure changes; accelerates application development cycles; and protects core IT assets for quick and easy disaster recovery.

"The current structure of our operation required virtualized storage and server resources that would streamline our operations while offering the data protection capabilities critical to our ongoing success," said Steve Meckling, network services administrator at Shiloh Industries. "The combination of EqualLogic storage and VMware servers was the only solution capable of meeting our demand. With this infrastructure in place, we have realized greater overall flexibility within our IT operations while ensuring the safety of our vital company data."

"At Kane County, deploying an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN has provided us with the cost-effective, flexible solution we needed to consolidate storage in our VMware-based environment," said David Siles, CTO, Kane County, Illinois. "We've been thoroughly impressed with the performance and scalability of our EqualLogic SAN. Our initial PS300E deployment has been expanded three-fold in support of a growing set of initiatives, including server consolidation, virtualized desktops and centralized document management."

EqualLogic's networked storage has been deployed with VMware virtual infrastructure software by a growing list of global organizations in multiple industries, including financial services, government, healthcare, higher education, legal services, manufacturing and oil-and-gas exploration. Among a growing list of joint EqualLogic/VMware customers are: Carnegie Mellon University; Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP; Conxerge Managed Solutions; Farwest Steel Corporation; Foley Hoag LLP; Georgia Department of Transportation; HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc.; HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation; Kane County, Ilinois; LifeLink Foundation; NewAlliance Bank; Plains Exploration and Production Company; and Shiloh Industries.

This rapid growth has been made possible through a strong and expanding network of EqualLogic partners who are also VMware Authorized Consultants and Enterprise Premier Partners. "EqualLogic and VMware are both acknowledged leaders in next-generation data center technologies," said Dale Lahue, chief technology officer and co-founder of Foedus, a leading national provider of consulting and integration services, specializing in virtual infrastructure technology solutions, including server and storage consolidation. "The combination of EqualLogic's premier virtualized iSCSI SAN with VMware's virtual infrastructure software merges the strengths of both offerings, the result of which is a solution that delivers tremendous efficiencies for a reasonable cost. We have experienced unprecedented demand from our customers and expect this momentum to continue as an increasing number of companies realize the value of these complementary technologies."

EqualLogic's PS Series of storage arrays deliver a dynamic virtual storage solution to companies of all sizes, offering a reliable, self-managing, scalable pool of storage that responds nimbly to user demands. EqualLogic's award-winning and data-center-proven PS Series is the only native iSCSI SAN solution to offer a comprehensive and fully integrated standard feature set at no additional cost. The PS Series provides seamless scalability for on-demand growth, automatic workload balancing within and across arrays, snapshots for instant data recovery and built in auto-replication for disaster recover in a resilient enterprise-class IP SAN infrastructure. Each PS Series storage array comes with fully redundant, fault-tolerant hardware and includes automatic storage-management software in a self-contained chassis.

About EqualLogic
EqualLogic®, Inc., is the leading provider of intelligent, enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions that enable businesses – from Fortune 100 to small and mid-size organizations in more than 30 countries worldwide – to realize the economic benefits of consolidated, self-managing storage.  The EqualLogic PS Series of storage arrays, based on the company's patented peer storage architecture, is the industry's first automatic storage platform that delivers operational simplicity, comprehensive data management services and high data availability in a single, scalable pool of storage.  EqualLogic's headquarters are located in Nashua, New Hampshire. For more information, please visit www.equallogic.com.


EqualLogic® is a registered trademark of EqualLogic®, Inc. Other marks belong to their respective owners.

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