EXABYTE AND TOLIS GROUP OFFER FIRST MULTI-DRIVE TAPE BACKUP SOLUTION FOR
MAC OS X
Boulder, CO – April 7, 2003 – Exabyte=AE Corporation (OTCBB: EXBT), a
performance and value leader in tape backup systems, today announced that
TOLIS Group has certified the Exabyte 221L LTOT UltriumT tape library for
Mac OS X, Apple’s Unix-based operating system. In conjunction with the Mac
OS X version of TOLIS Group’s BRUT Command Line Interface (CLI) data
protection software, the Exabyte 221L is the first tape storage solution to
provide multiple drive back up and restore for Apple’s Mac OS X operating
system over Fibre Channel or SCSI. The collaboration has resulted in a
first-of-its-kind storage solution for Mac OS X – a low-cost, rapidly
deployable, high-performance storage back up and restore solution that
perfectly complements Apple’s Xserve and Xserve RAID server and storage
offerings. A technology preview can be seen in Booth #SL601 at the National
Association of Broadcaster’s (NAB) convention, April 7-10 in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
“Mac OS X, Xserve and Xserve RAID combine to make a powerful corporate
computing platform, and BRU solutions combined with Exabyte’s automation
and tape technology provide the perfect tool to protect critical enterprise
data,” said Tim Jones, president of TOLIS Group. “We’re particularly
excited about how fast the solution is. We’re seeing sustainable BRU CLI
throughput performance in excess of 66.5 MB/sec from Apple’s Xserve RAID
storage platforms with combined dual-drive throughput to the Exabyte 221L
native Fibre Channel library of over 40 MB/sec. In this configuration, the
solution will back up 108 GB/hr.”
Exabyte’s line of LTO automation solutions is designed to support the needs
of a variety of environments, from desktop to enterprise applications.
Ranging from 10-cartridge autoloaders to 150-cartridge library solutions,
users are offered automated data storage solutions providing up to 60 TB of
capacity (compressed)* and throughput of up to 1.7 TB/hr (compressed)*. The
Exabyte 221L LTO Ultrium tape library provides world-class automation for
departmental workgroup back up and restore operations. The 221L can be
configured with one or two LTO tape drives and up to 21 data cartridges and
is available in either SCSI or native Fibre Channel configurations. With a
native Fibre Channel option, the 221L is ideal and cost-effective for use
in SAN applications.
The 221L offers the flexibility to upgrade to next-generation tape drives
as capacities and system performance rates increase by simply replacing the
tape drive. The 221L’s compact 5U design allows it to be used as a tabletop
or rack-mounted device, making it the ideal solution for space-constrained,
budget-conscious data centers.
The 221L is the only library in its class to offer a native Fibre Channel
interface to both the tape drives and the robotics, eliminating the need
for an internal bridge or router. As a result, performance bottlenecks are
eliminated and a costly point of failure is avoided. The result is a
faster, more reliable back up and restore operation.
“The TOLIS BRU CLI and Exabyte 221L solution on Apple’s Mac OS X, Xserve
and Xserve RAID combine the ease-of-use, capacity, performance and
reliability Mac users want when backing up critical enterprise data,
including digital video, audio tracks, multimedia graphics and other
storage-intensive applications,” said Tom Ward, president and CEO of
Exabyte. “With its first-and-only multi-drive back up and restore
capabilities for Mac OS X, this is a great storage solution for the Mac
community, and our demos at NAB will show off its tremendous speed and
unmatched ease of use, creating a superior price-performance value.”
The TOLIS Group’s BRU CLI data protection software for Mac OS X systems
fulfills the need for easy-to-administer, reliable “headless” backup for
Apple’s Xserve and Xserve RAID. BRU CLI audits every bit during back up and
restore operations. Each backup can be 100 percent verified using an
out-of-band process that reduces the total backup window of a bit-level
verified backup operation by 50 percent. Further, BRU CLI implements TOLIS’
advanced data recovery algorithms to assure the return of the most data of
any backup tool should data become corrupted; BRU CLI will not abort the
restore as other solutions would.
BRU CLI protects the data on the Xserve internal ATA hard drives,
externally attached SCSI drives and arrays, and the Fibre-Channel connected
Xserve RAID storage subsystem. Implemented on Xserve, BRU CLI supports
SCSI, Fibre- Channel, Firewire and USB tape drives. SCSI and Fibre-Channel
libraries are supported as well. Additionally, BRU CLI will also write to
removable media, disk farms, and even devices like the USB
ThumbDrive/PenDrive.
BRU CLI’s small footprint allows multiple processes to easily drive
multiple tape drives simultaneously with a minimal increase in system load.
BRU CLI properly backs-up and restores all file elements including data
fork, resource fork, finder info, and UNIX permission attributes. Remote
file systems can be easily mounted and backed-up. Also, BRU CLI includes
TOLIS’ tapectl and libctl tools. These command line tools are used to
manage tape drives (rewind, erase, append, setblk, etc.) and tape libraries
(load, unload and inventory) to support these devices under Apple’s Mac OS
X operating system.
The technology preview will be available at booth # SL601 at the National
Association of Broadcasters show, held in Las Vegas, April 7-9. BRU CLI for
Mac OS X will be available directly from The TOLIS Group at
www.tolisgroup.com or by contacting sales@tolisgroup.com. The Exabyte 221L
continues to be available from Exabyte resellers or directly from Exabyte
by calling 1-800-EXABYTE or emailing sales@exabyte.com.
About The TOLIS Group, Inc.
The TOLIS Group Inc. is a privately held corporation located in Scottsdale,
Arizona with a mission to provide effective and reliable leading-edge data
protection solutions to OEMs and end-users. The majority of TOLIS’ products
are based on the BRUT backup engine, an elegant piece of software first
developed in 1985 that has been evolved and remains at the forefront of
backup technology leadership to this day. Numerous product excellence
awards have recognized BRU. TOLIS is also the sponsor of the Linux Tape
Device Certification Program (www.linuxtapecert.org). Contact the TOLIS
Group at 1-480-505-0488, via e-mail at info@tolisgroup.com or visit TOLIS
on the Web at www.tolisgroup.com.
About Exabyte Corporation
Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB: EXBT) provides innovative tape storage
solutions to customers whose top buying criteria is value – maximum
performance, quality and ease-of-use at a price they can afford. Exabyte is
the recognized value-leader in tape storage and automation solutions for
workstations, midrange servers and enterprise storage networks, and has
been an industry innovator since 1987. Exabyte’s high-performance Mammoth-2
(M2T) tape drives for the mid-range market have a strong performance-price
ratio, Exabyte’s VXA-2 tape drive technology provides DDS users with
significantly higher capacity and performance at a similar price point, and
Exabyte’s storage automation products are rugged, reliable automation
solutions for users of VXAtape, MammothTapeT and LTOT (UltriumT). Exabyte
has a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and resellers that share
Exabyte’s commitment to value and customer service, including partners such
as IBM, Compaq, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Bull, Toshiba, Apple Computer,
Tech Data, Digital Storage Inc., Ingram Micro and Arrow Electronics. For
additional information, call 1-800-EXABYTE or visit www.exabyte.com. For
investor relations inquiries, e-mail investor@exabyte.com.
