Acopia Networks Announces File Area Network (FAN) Vision

Acopia Networks(R), Inc., the leader in high performance
intelligent file virtualization, today announced its file area
networking (FAN) vision and product direction. As defined by founder
and chairman, Cheng Wu, Acopia's FAN roadmap details plans to leverage
intelligence in the network, simplifying management, and optimizing
delivery of file-based information assets.

With files now the pervasive method for managing business data, Wu
recognized the need for a unified file management strategy - a new
enterprise-wide architectural and methodological approach delivering
both scale and scope. Leveraging file virtualization, network based
policy enforcement, and globally distributed access, Acopia's FAN
architecture is inclusive and open so that partners and customers can
easily integrate with and build upon it.

This technology and market shift is analogous to changes that took
place in the 1990s, as storage area networks (SANs) became a popular
means to improve heterogeneity and capacity provisioning for
block-mode data. SANs offered some relief to rapid growth by
virtualizing the physical connections between the servers and storage
devices. In the pursuing years, SANs became a multi-billion dollar
global market. Today the problems of growth and complexity are
similar; however, the challenge is now managing file-based information
rather than raw blocks.

"Files are very different than blocks," said Dave Russell,
research vice president, Gartner. "They have a business context. In
other words, the metadata can be used to apply policies to the file -
for instance how long to keep data, where to store it, when to shred
it, etc... - this view of metadata can only be accomplished with an
approach that is file-aware, such as a FAN, which can provide great
value to customers." He continued, "I look forward to following this
marketplace as it evolves."

"We have a complexity crisis in unstructured data that
necessitates a paradigm shift. Without any changes, new application
approaches such as SOA and dynamic web content, when coupled with
unrelenting growth rates, will break traditional file-based
architectures within the next 3 years," said Brad O'Neill, senior
analyst and consultant with The Taneja Group, and an early FAN
proponent. "Acopia's approach to file virtualization is an excellent
example of how the new FAN-centric paradigm will resolve these issues:
Leverage the network, thinking globally about file controls, and
provide optimal scale and flexibility. This is where the market is
heading and Acopia is driving this trend."

"Indeed, the rapid growth of file data, and new applications -
such as Web 2.0 and SOA, which imply dynamic configuration of static
data - is creating a complexity crisis which necessitates a network
resident solution," explained Wu. "An effectively deployed FAN will
include: 1) heterogeneous support for a common management framework
that is future-proofed against architectural choices over time; 2)
fine-grained, real-time policy-based controls across the entire
infrastructure; and 3) network residency. It will allow servers and
applications to deploy particular tools as required, regardless of
platform, while allowing the storage layer to expand in a completely
open fashion. Moreover, this must all be accomplished in a gradual
deployment - customers cannot be asked to establish an entirely new
file infrastructure."

Today, Acopia delivers:

- The only heterogeneous FAN fabric available on the market

- The only real-time policy enforcement for FAN

- The first global unified namespace for FAN

- The first set of FAN management and control services

- Leadership in driving FAN related industry standards

"Perhaps the greatest promise of the FAN is that file storage -
whether its file servers or NAS systems, from heterogeneous vendors -
can be networked in an intelligent fashion to make discrete and
individual assets greater than the sum of their parts. FAN enables
intelligent and transparent movement between different tiers of
storage, centralized data protection, load balancing, etc..., that
significantly reduces cost and complexity," said Tony Asaro, senior
analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "ESG feels that file
and object level awareness and virtualization are core requirements
for all of storage networking in the future and Acopia is
well-positioned to be a leader in this paradigm."

Acopia will be offering demonstrations of its ARX solutions in a
FAN deployment at this week's Storage Networking World, Fall 2006,
taking place October 31 - November 3, at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes
Resort in Orlando, Florida, in Booth C36.

In addition, Acopia customer, Alfredo Villalobos, of Telefonica
International, will be a featured participant on an End-User Insights
Panel, moderated by Paul Saffo, forecaster, strategist, and director,
of the Institute for the Future, taking place on Wednesday, November
1, from 11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Senior IT executives from Special
Olympics, Market Street Mortgage, and Turner Broadcasting will join
Villalobos on the panel.

Intelligent File Virtualization and the File Area Networking (FAN)
Paradigm Report

Learn more about how FAN, bolstered by intelligent file
virtualization, will dramatically change file management and eliminate
some of today's most difficult file management challenges, in the
recently published report entitled, "Intelligent File Virtualization
and the FAN Paradigm," available at:
http://searchstorage.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1159445967_652.html.

About Cheng Wu

Prior to founding Acopia in 2002, industry visionary and serial
entrepreneur, Cheng Wu founded and subsequently sold Arrowpoint
Communications, a leading Web switching company, to Cisco Systems for
$5.7 Billion in 2000. Prior to the sale, Mr. Wu was the technical
visionary behind Arrowpoint's innovative intelligent L4-7 load
balancing switches, optimized for e-commerce and content delivery
capabilities. After the sale, Mr. Wu held various executive management
positions at Cisco Systems, including group vice president, general
manager and vice president of strategy for Cisco's Content and
Multi-Service Edge Group. Prior to founding Arrowpoint, he founded
Arris Networks, a developer of high-density Internet access products,
which he subsequently sold to Cascade Communications (now Lucent
Technologies) for $150 million in 1996, just seven months after
founding. Mr. Wu holds a Bachelor's Degree in electrical engineering
from ChiaoTung University, Taiwan and a Master's Degree in computer
science from Indiana University.

About Acopia Networks

Acopia Networks, Inc. is the leader in high performance
intelligent file virtualization. Its family of ARX systems help
customers manage the growth, complexity and cost of unstructured,
globally distributed, file-based information. By providing automatic,
policy-driven, data migration, tiering, load balancing, and
replication across multi-vendor storage environments, the ARX systems
help IT executives to reduce management overhead and accelerate
business workflow. For further information about Acopia's products and
services, please visit: http://www.acopia.com/, call: 978-513-2900
(US) / 49-89-944-90-165 (Europe), or email: info@acopia.com.

(C) 2006 Acopia Networks, Inc. Acopia is a trademark of Acopia
Networks. All other brands, products, or service names may be
trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are
associated.