Pillar Data Systems Introduces Breakthrough Storage System At A Cost Up To 80% Lower Than Legacy Alternatives

Customers Praise Pillar Axiom™ Storage System for Exceptional Performance, Manageability, Flexibility, and Value

San Jose, Calif. (June 13, 2005) – Pillar Data Systems today announced its entry into the enterprise network storage market with the introduction of its Pillar Axiom™ enterprise storage system that is easy to manage, offers SAN and NAS capabilities in a single platform, and provides multi-tiered application-specific Quality of Service on a single storage pool, all at a compellingly low price.

Pillar is led by a team of accomplished storage industry veterans from IBM, Quantum, Conner Peripherals, LSI, and HP, and is backed by over $150 million from Tako Ventures, the venture firm of Lawrence Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL).

"We met with hundreds of prospective customers and asked them what they expected from enterprise storage," said Michael Workman, president and CEO of Pillar. "They told us they were looking for a storage system that was more flexible, easier to manage and less expensive. We built our company and our products from the ground up to meet these expectations. Our customers tell us that we're on the right track."

"Pillar sold us an enterprise storage system with seven times the capacity for about half the price quoted by a competitor," said Robert Moon, the Senior Vice President and CIO at publicly traded LeapFrog Enterprises, based in Emeryville, Calif. "If that isn't compelling, I don't know what is."

Pillar Axiom systems enable customers to deploy a NAS-only system, a SAN-only system, or build a mixed system to scale with their business. Customers can deploy many different applications on the same platform at the same time, while delivering the appropriate performance to each from a single system.

Early Pillar customers praise the new system's adaptability. "The capabilities of the Pillar Axiom system are unparalleled," said Chris Butler, CTO of I/PRO Corporation, a provider of web site auditing and audience measurement services based in San Francisco, Calif. "The system's unique ability to intelligently store multiple tiers of data on a common platform has already saved me three times the purchase price."

Customers have found that it costs less to purchase and deploy a Pillar Axiom system than it does to maintain some of their current systems. And unlike competing alternatives, Pillar allows customers to scale capacity and performance without incurring additional software license fees, providing unparalleled appeal in the enterprise storage marketplace.

"Pillar Axiom provides tremendous value, not just in terms of acquisition price but also from lower management costs and savings derived from the ability to consolidate all our SAN and NAS systems on a single platform under a common management interface," said Dave Matanane, director of information technology at eHealthInsurance, a major online health insurance information provider based in Mountain View, Calif. "This capability will allow us to migrate many of our internal business applications to Pillar Axiom, including our back-office financial and data warehousing applications."

And unlike competing alternatives, which can take days to install and configure, Pillar Axiom can be up and running in a few hours.

"Pillar has hit a real sweet spot for midrange organizations looking to expand their use of storage area networks," said Christopher Hill, Associate Director of Information Systems at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP, a law firm based in New York, NY.

"SAN-enabled server and storage virtualization is a key initiative for us," Hill said. "Configuration and management of our existing SAN has been unnecessarily burdensome. There's something fundamentally wrong when a $400,000 storage system requires an additional $100,000 for professional services just to install the system. Pillar's comparable Axiom SAN solution cost around $100,000 installed, and its management interface is remarkably simple and functional compared to other systems we've used."

Pillar has created a single, integrated system that reduces the complexities of deploying and managing multiple storage tiers, and lowers operational costs by automating repetitive tasks. Pillar Axiom implements a peered NAS and SAN architecture, lowering costs and improving performance. Unlike systems that add a NAS gateway onto a SAN that increases cost and complexity, or NAS systems that add a software layer to imitate a SAN system, Pillar provides both capabilities natively and efficiently on a single storage pool.

Pillar Axiom systems are cost effective because they use high volume, modular components throughout; they automatically allocate hardware assets where they are needed the most; they deliver cost-effective high availability with an active backup design; and they're supported by year-round, 24x7 professional services, field engineering and technical support.

"When we look at Pillar, we see a company with a long-term vision and the resources to deliver long-term solutions," said Richard Villars, vice president of IDC's Storage Systems Research, based in Framingham, Mass. "When we look at Pillar Axiom, we see a storage system built on a solid foundation of technology, but more important, designed to help companies better meet their information needs."

In an industry first, Pillar Axiom manages system resources to simultaneously deliver multiple levels of service from a single storage pool. Storage administrators, using Pillar's GUI-based Axiom Storage Manager software, can perform application-specific system tuning by answering a few simple questions about the application, such as priority level and file size. Axiom Storage Manager software then automatically configures Axiom system aspects such as data placement on disk, spindle striping levels, mirroring, priority queues, network bandwidth and caching algorithms, thereby delivering application level Quality of Service based on business requirements.

Transaction-oriented database files, for example, which are typically small in size yet high in performance priority, would be striped across multiple spindles and stored in a narrow band near the outer diameter of each disk drive platter, where the data rate is the highest and there is more data per track. Lower priority data is automatically stored on inner tracks where data rates are lower.

However, controlling data placement by itself does not maximize system performance. "Some systems allow users to place data on the disk where they choose, but this is useless if not coupled with features such as prioritized queuing and cache management," added Mike Workman of Pillar. "And, to reduce TCO and make this of practical value, the configuration and data placement must be automatic, based on application profiles and a single mouse-click. Otherwise, this would only add to the storage administrator's increasing burden."

Pillar's intelligent data placement, coupled with a prioritized queue, enables Pillar Axiom to deliver significantly differentiated QoS on one platform.

"Pillar is entering the storage market at an ideal time, and should quickly find its way to the short list of many enterprise storage customers," said Arun Taneja, president of the Taneja Group, a technology analyst firm based in Hopkinton, Mass. "With its unique policy-based management, compelling system design, seasoned management team and strong financial backing, Pillar has the credentials to earn respectable market share."

Each system's capacity scales from three terabytes to over 300 terabytes. The Pillar Axiom storage system is composed of three modular components with full active redundancy, including the Pilot Policy Controller, which runs Pillar's Axiom Storage Manager Software; the Slammer Storage Controller, which manages SAN and NAS I/O; and the Brick Storage Enclosure which provides RAID protected disk storage. The entire system is easily managed with Axiom Storage Manager Software, which allows administrators to allocate storage resources, set application-specific QoS profiles, and define storage automation parameters such as the data replication schedule.

"Pillar is bringing to customers a storage system that is elegantly simple in its implementation, yet with powerful implications," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group, based in Milford, Mass. "Pillar Axiom consolidates SAN and NAS storage under a single management interface; provides policy-based QoS tunable to specific application requirements; utilizes a clustered architecture for greater scalability; and requires no additional software to license as the system scales. Additionally, just as important is the team at Pillar, who has the experience, resources and market savvy that is needed to fight the good fight."

Pillar Led by Storage Pioneers; Receives over $150 Million in Private Funding
Pillar Data Systems is led by storage experts who helped pioneer numerous RAID, SAN, NAS and storage data management technologies. Pillar's senior management team includes Dr. Michael Workman, president and CEO, formerly of IBM's storage technology division and Conner Peripherals; Nancy Holleran, COO, formerly of Conner and IBM; Adrian Jones, senior vice president of sales, most recently of BakBone Software and Quantum; and Mike Brewer, chief architect and vice president of engineering, formerly of IBM.

Pillar Data Systems is privately funded by Tako Ventures, LLC, through which the company has received $150 million in total funding. Mr. Ellison is the primary backer. The Board of Directors includes chairman Steven Fink, CEO of Lawrence Investments; Philip Simon of Lawrence Investments; Barry Munitz of the J. Paul Getty Trust; Arthur Laffer of Laffer Associates; and Michael Workman and Nancy Holleran of Pillar.

Availability and Support
Pillar Axiom is now shipping with full NAS capability. The Pillar Axiom SAN capability is completing beta testing with results that have exceeded customer's expectations and is expected to be generally available in July. The products are available directly from Pillar Data Systems and through select resellers in the United States. The products are backed by Pillar's own professional services organization, instructor-led training, and experienced 24x7technical support team.

About Pillar Data Systems
Founded in 2001, Pillar Data Systems develops enterprise network storage systems. The company's Pillar Axiom solution, driven by its innovative policy-based management capabilities, integrates SAN and NAS into a centrally managed storage platform. Pillar Axiom systems consolidate multiple tiers of enterprise network storage into a single, easily managed system capable of scaling to hundreds of terabytes of capacity. Pillar Data Systems is privately funded by Tako Ventures, LLC, the venture arm of Larry Ellison, through which the company has to date received $150 million in funding. The company is headquartered at 2840 Junction Avenue, San Jose, California 95134, with a development office in Longmont, Colorado. The company can be reached on the web at http://www.pillardata.com, by phone at 408-503-4000 or by email at sales@pillardata.com.

Pillar Data Systems, Pillar Axiom, and the Pillar logo are all trademarks of Pillar Data Systems. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

PILLAR CUSTOMER PROFILES AND COMMENTS

Early Pillar customers, all of whom have previously purchased, managed and evaluated midrange and enterprise storage systems from other vendors, cite the exceptional manageability, reliability, flexibility and price/performance of the Pillar Axiom as key criteria in their purchase decisions.

LeapFrog Springs to Action with Pillar Axiom
Robert Moon, the Senior Vice President and CIO at publicly tradedLeapFrog Enterprises, a leading designer, developer and marketer of technology-based learning products, was initially skeptical when his IT team approached him and asked to evaluate the new Pillar Axiom system. Moon, an internationally recognized CIO with over 20 years experience managing information technology, was naturally cautious, considering he had seen more than his share of unfulfilled promises from other storage vendors. Yet after an evaluation from his team, and after kicking the tires himself and studying the system's unique architecture, Moon became a convert and purchased his first 14 terabyte system.

"Pillar's system and value proposition is very compelling," said Moon, based in Emeryville, Calif. "We evaluated our options and Pillar Axiom was the only enterprise storage system to satisfy my requirements for reliability, manageability and price/performance. Pillar sold us an enterprise storage system with seven times the capacity for about half the price quoted by a competitor. If that isn't compelling, I don't know what is."

Pillar's attentive approach to customer service was another important purchase criteria. "I found the entire Pillar team to be extremely responsive on the customer service side," commented Moon. "I'm supporting a $600 million plus annual business here, and so I need to know I'm backed up with responsive service and support. After my system arrived, the Pillar team had the system uncrated and up and running in a matter of hours. They were with us the entire way, from testing through production, and ensured the success of our deployment."

Moon currently uses the Pillar Axiom system to house network files and Microsoft Exchange files, though over time he plans to scale capacity and migrate LeapFrog's entire Oracle database system to Pillar Axiom. Moon is also creating a remote disaster recovery hot site in Arizona for the entire company in which all data will be entrusted to a Pillar Axiom system. Over time, he plans to standardize on Pillar for all his enterprise storage needs.

Thacher Proffitt & Wood Law Firm Profits with Pillar
Christopher Hill, Associate Director of Information Systems at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP, is currently completing an evaluation of the Pillar Axiom SAN system. This leading 500-person international commercial law firm is headquartered in New York City, and has an IT staff of just 20.

"Pillar has hit a real sweet spot for midrange organizations looking to expand their use of storage area networks," said Hill. "SAN-enabled server and storage virtualization is a key initiative for us. Configuration and management of our existing SAN has been unnecessarily burdensome. There's something fundamentally wrong when a $400,000 storage system requires an additional $100,000 for professional services just to install the system. Pillar's comparable Axiom SAN solution cost around $100,000 installed, and its management interface is remarkably simple and functional compared to other systems we've used."

Hill was also impressed with the Pillar Axiom QoS capabilities, which allow administrators to prioritize data placement on the storage system optimized for the criticality of the application.

"Pillar is the first company we've seen that accounts for the realities of drive geometry - that data at the outer edge of a hard disk platter can be accessed significantly faster than data placed closer to spindle," added Hill. "The Pillar Axiom's architecture allows us to manage multiple tiers of data on a single consolidated and optimized system. No other vendor offers us this level of control over our data."

Hill hopes to eventually migrate his entire heterogeneous, multi-vendor storage environment to Pillar Axiom. Hill is also evaluating the network-attached (NAS) capabilities of the Pillar Axiom system, which supports integrated SAN/NAS on a consolidated platform.

I/PRO Corporation Counts on PillarOver the last ten years, I/PRO Corporation, based in San Francisco, Calif., has established a reputation for offering the industry's most comprehensive web site auditing and audience measurement services, measuring traffic, visitor behavior, psychographics, demographics and brand affinity for thousands of leading web sites. The company's in-depth analysis and reporting, unparalleled in the industry for its breadth and depth, generates a large quantity of data that must be continually stored, protected and analyzed.

I/PRO stores its data in a heterogeneous, multi-vendor storage environment comprising over 30 terabytes of data warehouse capacity. According to Chris Butler, the company's CTO, as the company grew, their heterogeneous storage environment became expensive, painful and a difficult challenge to manage. Anticipating further growth in his business, Butler determined that he needed to find a way to reduce storage management costs, and he determined that the simplest way was to create a homogenous storage environment where all data is stored on a single integrated system.

Butler naturally investigated Pillar Axiom, which promised high performance, easily managed NAS storage that could scale to hundreds of terabytes.

"The capabilities of the Pillar Axiom system are unparalleled," says Butler. "The system's unique ability to intelligently store multiple tiers of data on a common platform has already saved me three times the purchase price. This is crucial for I/PRO, as we maintain the deepest and broadest online media research platform. The Pillar Axiom utilizes a powerful architecture that makes it easy and cost-effective for us to operate our data warehousing, data analytics and tape archiving."

After completing a thorough evaluation of Pillar Axiom, and comparing its capabilities, price/performance and service offerings against I/PRO's legacy NAS vendor, I/PRO purchased their first 15 terabyte system. Over the coming months, I/PRO plans to migrate their entire NAS storage infrastructure to Pillar. The company has also begun evaluating Pillar's SAN capability, which can seamlessly integrate within the same Pillar Axiom platform as Pillar's NAS.

eHealthInsurance Cares for its Data with Pillar Data Systems
In an industry struggling to contain rising health care costs and insure the uninsured, eHealthInsurance is a true pioneer. The company, founded in 1998 and based in Mountain View, Calif., helps individual consumers and families shop online for health insurance. Boasting relationships with more than 140 health insurance companies nationwide, and offering over 4,000 health insurance plans on the site, the company makes it easy for consumers to learn about, choose and buy the health plan that best meets each person's unique needs and to find a plan they can afford.

The eHealthInsurance.com website, which on average is visited by over 700,000 consumers each month, is known for its ease of use. But underneath the site's intuitive interface lies a sophisticated Oracle database-driven website composed of hundreds of dynamic Java-based applications.

The company has grown dramatically since its founding, and with that growth has come more complex data storage challenges. eHealthInsurance needed more flexible storage to dynamically roll out applications and scale capacity. And the company sought a solution that would efficiently partition disks and allocate space, with a management interface that would speed up application deployment and reduce the need for valuable IT staff time. After investigating multiple options, the company purchased a 10 terabyte Pillar Axiom storage system with integrated SAN/NAS functionality.

"We needed a flexible storage system that could adapt to our dynamic rapid application development environment," says Dave Matanane, director of information technology at eHealthInsurance. "We were drawn to Pillar Axiom by the system's exceptional manageability. The system allows us to prioritize applications, so that critical applications receive preferential quality of service and lesser used or archived applications are given lower priority."

Matanane says reliability, total cost of ownership and feature set were all critical purchase criteria for eHealthInsurance, and on all counts, Pillar Axiom excelled.

"Pillar Axiom provides tremendous value, not just in terms of acquisition price but also from lower management costs and savings derived from the ability to consolidate all our SAN and NAS systems on a single platform under a common management interface," adds Matanane. "This capability will allow us to migrate many of our internal business applications to Pillar Axiom, including our back-office financial and data warehousing applications."

Pillar Data Systems, Pillar Axiom, and the Pillar logo are all trademarks of Pillar Data Systems. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.