Fujitsu, World's No. 4 Server Vendor, Selects Sistina's Data-Sharing Software for Turn-Key Linux Clustering Solutions

MINNEAPOLIS, USA AND HAYES, UK-June 9, 2003-Sistina Software, the premier storage infrastructure software company delivering data-sharing solutions, and Fujitsu Systems Europe, one of the world's leading server and storage OEMs, today announced that Fujitsu Systems Europe has selected Sistina GFS (TM) as the exclusive cluster file system running on Fujitsu's line of High Performance Computing (HPC) clustering solutions. Through this partnership, Sistina and Fujitsu will provide customers and partners with Fujitsu's first pre-configured and packaged Linux cluster solution for both industrial computing applications and enterprise-class data center deployments.

Through this alliance, Fujitsu and Sistina are responding to strong demand from a variety of industries that includes customers in the automotive/aerospace, financial, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and film/video markets. This new joint Linux offering provides a simplified process for customers and partners who are looking for a single point of contact for all product, service and support transactions.

"Based on recent market trends, we expect to see a significant increase in demand for blade serving and clustering technologies," said Naoya Tamura, chief operating officer of Fujitsu Systems Europe. "Fujitsu's partnership with Sistina bolsters our capabilities to provide our customers with exactly what they're asking for-industry-leading file clustering solutions for enterprise and HPC data centers. Sistina GFS combined with cutting-edge Fujitsu hardware delivers blazing performance and high-availability in a single package, providing corporate customers with an industry-proven, simplified solution."

"Fujitsu's expansive reach into the European market coupled with its hpcLine of Intel-based Linux clusters made this partnership a win for Sistina and especially for Sistina GFS customers in the automotive and financial sectors," said Brad Ferguson, vice president of sales and services, Sistina Software. "Through this partnership, Sistina and Fujitsu will offer customers unparalleled product solutions and service packages that not only provide greater price/performance benefits to the organization, but also fuel the growth of Linux as an enterprise-level, data-sharing platform."

Recognized as the de facto cluster file system on Linux, Sistina GFS is a highly stable solution for enterprise users requiring reliable access to data. Through this alliance, Sistina GFS is being distributed as part of Fujitsu's first pre-configured Linux cluster offering on its new 3.06 GHz dual Intel Xeon processor-based server hardware. Joint customers will be able to deploy a solution that combines Intel-based Fujitsu servers and Sistina GFS, consolidating existing server and storage resources into a single management domain, linking thousands of diverse data storage repositories into a massively scalable, secure and robust storage area network (SAN).

"This is a major play for both companies," said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "Sistina's technology gains huge credibility with a mass market server vendor, and Fujitsu becomes one of the first to provide customers all the benefits of a commercial clustered file system to the HPC market."

The Fujitsu hpcLine is a very compact, rack-integrated, Linux cluster system for engineering applications. Built from high-performance system components, it is rigorously tested for production use, and deployed in scalable configurations that include systems with hundreds of processors. Compute node variants are available with Intel Pentium 4, Intel Xeon, Intel Itanium 2, AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors. The standard interconnect is Fast Ethernet, with Gigabit Ethernet, SCSI or Myrinet high-bandwidth interconnects available as an option. RedHat Linux is used for the widest support of qualified third-party application software.

About Fujitsu Systems Europe

Fujitsu Systems Europe is a leading provider of high-performance computing solutions and services in Europe. It offers a wide range of UNIX servers, from departmental systems to state-of-the-art supercomputers, complemented by the latest in industrial production-oriented Linux Cluster technology. Its services are founded on dedicated expertise in the applications of distributed and parallel computing in technical and engineering simulation. Fujitsu Systems Europe is part of the global Fujitsu organization, further extending the breadth and depth of the support it gives to its customers, world-wide. Clients of Fujitsu Systems Europe systems and services today include leading enterprises in the automotive and aerospace industries, energy, meteorology, as well as universities and research institutions. For additional information, please visit http://www.fse.fujitsu.com/ .

About Sistina Software

Sistina, the premier storage infrastructure software company, delivers data-sharing solutions for enterprise and technical computing customers. Based on Sistina's file system and volume management software, Sistina provides customers with high performance, scalable, robust storage solutions. Sistina supports multiple server, OS, storage and networking technologies enabling customers to manage low-TCO, highly integrated environments. Sistina's technology is ideally suited for customers deploying large database, file-serving, scientific and web applications. For additional information, visit http://www.sistina.com .