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EqualLogic Joins VMwareTechnology Alliances Program

Leading Storage Innovator Teams with the Global Leader in Virtual Infrastructure Software to Simplify IT Operations

Nashua, N.H. — July 24, 2006 — EqualLogic®, the leading provider of enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions, today announced that it has joined the VMware Technology Alliances Program as part of an ongoing effort to fully integrate EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SAN solutions with VMware’s suite of virtual infrastructure software—including the new iSCSI-enabled VMware ESX Server, which is part of VMware Infrastructure 3.  This technology partnership is the culmination of increasing cooperation between the two companies to support a growing base of joint customers and resellers who require both virtual storage and server technologies to simplify data center operations. The VMware Technology Alliances Program enables partner companies to develop solutions that augment the value of VMware virtual infrastructure products in customers’ IT environments.

Companies from multiple industries worldwide are embracing EqualLogic storage and VMware server virtualization software together, because virtual machines require a simple and cost-effective virtual storage solution that can easily adapt to changing business requirements. Among a growing list of joint EqualLogic/VMware customers are: Carnegie Mellon University; Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP; Conxerge Managed Solutions; Foley Hoag LLP; Georgia Department of Transportation; HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc.; HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation; Kane County, Illinois; LifeLink Foundation; NewAlliance Bank; Plains Exploration and Production Company; and Shiloh Industries.

Companies deploying virtualized infrastructures are reaping significant benefits, including cutting hardware and operational costs in half and achieving server hardware utilization rates exceeding 75 percent.  Companies have accelerated DAS-to-SAN migration projects because of increased storage utilization, enriched corporate data protection methods, enhanced virtual systems availability and workload migration options.  By deploying an EqualLogic virtualized iSCSI SAN as the storage backbone in a VMware environment, IT departments are circumventing the cost and management complexity of traditional Fibre Channel SANs without compromising the enterprise-class storage demands of a VMware virtualized infrastructure.

“Our customers have been quick to embrace iSCSI storage and server virtualization as complementary solutions,” said John Joseph, vice president of marketing at EqualLogic.  “Both technologies reduce complexity and increase IT flexibility, making them a perfect remedy to the budget and resource constraints they face.  With VMware ESX Server’s native iSCSI support, the simplicity and ease of use VMware has achieved makes the complete VMware Infrastructure 3 feature set available to a broader range of customers.”

In addition to participation in the VMware Technology Alliances Program, EqualLogic and VMware have signed a cooperative support agreement to ensure that customers experience seamless support for their deployment of the two companies’ combined product sets.  The agreement provides VMware and EqualLogic direct access to each other’s support engineering resources to jointly support customers who have deployed VMware virtual environments with a PS Series SAN.

EqualLogic's PS Series 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 – 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 http://www.equallogic.com.


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

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Vee Baker
EqualLogic
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