LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.,... February 2, 2000 - Ultera Systems, the leading tape array controller and tape array system supplier, today announced that it has signed a non-exclusive agreement with SAN SOLUTIONS, S.A., a leading distributor of high-performance storage solutions and products in Spain and Portugal. This is Ultera’s second major European deal announced this month after partnering with U.K.- and Sweden-based reseller Kingswell-Skyhawk AB.

Madrid-based SAN SOLUTIONS will distribute Ultera’s line of tape array controllers and systems to premier storage resellers in Spain and Portugal.

"SAN SOLUTIONS offers us another way to offer resellers in Europe a solution to manage the extraordinary growing need for high-performance backup and storage solutions," said Fred Bedard, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Ultera Systems. "The demand for such solutions, and for high performance and high reliability, has brought a record number of resellers worldwide to Ultera for our unique array products."

Begona Sierra, Marketing Manager of SAN SOLUTIONS, said, "Ultera Systems provides a world-class technology in its tape RAID products, one that our resellers can confidently offer their customers as solutions to their data backup and storage needs now and for the foreseeable future."

Ultera Systems provides unprecedented tape performance with its innovative line of tape array controllers. Ultera controllers can be configured for RAID-1 operation, mirroring data to a pair of drives, or RAID-3 with data and parity information striped across a set of two or four drives. This configuration offers fault-tolerance, allowing tape backup operations to continue even in the event of a drive or media failure, as well as the fastest available performance by utilizing the cumulative bandwidth of all attached tape drives. An optional parity drive can be added to maximize reliability of the tape array.

Ultera’s tape controller line includes:

• Striper™ Series: high-end tape array controller that stripes data across up to five independent parallel array channels allowing for fast – up to 40 MB/sec. – flexible and highly reliable data protection.

• LibraryMaster™ Series: extends the tape array paradigm to the library level, creating an array of multi-drive libraries utilizing Ultera’s third-generation Tape RAID technology to provide the highest tape performance, backup/restore automation and fault-tolerant data protection while complementing existing tape technologies.

• Imager™ Series: allows simultaneous creation of up to five identical backup tapes in real time with no additional system overhead or software changes necessary.

• Shadow Master™ Series: provides real-time data mirroring across multiple tape loaders and libraries for the ultimate in data reliability and disaster recovery.

About Ultera Systems
Ultera Systems, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of RAID Tape Array controllers and subsystems designed for high-speed backup, archive and high-speed data acquisition applications. All industry standard tape drives, tape libraries and storage management software are compatible with the Ultera Arrays. Its tape array product lines are marketed under the trade names "Striper," "Imager," "LibraryMaster" and "Shadow Master," and sold through OEMs, VARs, and Systems Integrators worldwide. Ultera is based in Laguna Hills, Calif.

For further information, call (949) 367-8800, email inform@ultera.com or visit Ultera's web site at http://www.ultera.com.