SUN ANNOUNCES RECORD-BREAKING BACKUP OF DATABASE

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW), Mountain View, Calif., in conjunction with Veritas Software (NASDAQ:VRTS) and Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE:STK), has announced record-breaking results of a jointly-conducted backup demonstration of a multi-terabyte database.

The companies backed up alive, Oracle 7 database at a sustained rate of 941 gigabytes (GB)/hour, posting faster results than any competitive demonstrations to date.

During the portion of the backup process in which data is streamed from all devices in parallel, the companies were able to demonstrate raw disk backup rates of more than one terabyte (TB)/hour, giving rise to new strategies for very large database backups. Now, backups of multi-terabyte databases can be accomplished in a short few hours, enabling information technology organizations to provide more continuous access to data while safely securing the information that is so critical to success in today's competitive marketplace.

"Databases one TB and larger have become increasingly common as companies stockpile more and more business information in data warehouses," said Kathleen Holmgren, vice president and general manager of Sun's storage business unit.

"The record-breaking backup results achieved by Sun and our enterprise allies are a direct testament to the superior scalability and performance of the Sun(TM) storage, server and operating system platform for reliable, high speed access to vital data in online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, decision support and data mining applications."

The record-breaking results mark the end of the days when only mainframes could sustain the backup rates necessary to support enterprise-critical database backups. Today, astonishing rates in backup throughput can be achieved through scalable and configurable database servers and storage from Sun, state-of-the-art tape backup systems from StorageTek, and superior database and storage management software from Sun, Oracle and Veritas.

"This demonstration illustrates how VERITAS products can be integrated in customer environments to provide the industry's most advanced enterprise storage management solutions," said Fred Crary, vice president of marketing for VERITAS. "Sun(TM) Enterprise NetBackup(TM), based on VERITAS' proven NetBackup technology, was designed to provide simple management with high performance, scalable backups of network data for large environments that leverage advanced, industry standard solutions such as those provided by Sun, Oracle and StorageTek."

"Demand for mainframe-class performance in a server environment is real," said Chuck Schmidt, vice president of StorageTek's Global Partners Group. "This demonstration shows that the technology, both hardware and software, is available today to meet this requirement. Now users of large databases, approaching one terabyte per hour, can continue working while backing up their data at the same time."

System Configuration and Results

The demonstration was configured using a Sun(TM) Ultra(TM) Enterprise(TM) 6000 server, Sun SPARCstorage Array RAID systems, SPARCstorage(TM) DLT(TM) 7000 tape drives, the Solaris(TM) operating environment, Sun SPARCstorage Volume Manager, Sun Enterprise NetBackup software from Veritas, the Oracle7 database, Oracle Enterprise Backup Utility (EBU), and StorageTek RedWood SD-3 tape drives.

The demonstration measured backup throughput for on-line, off-line and raw disk backups. During the on-line backup, sustained throughput of 941 GB/hour was achieved. Off-line backup resulted in sustained throughput of 940 GB/hour while raw device backup demonstrated sustained throughput of 1.03 TB/hour. A white paper with complete data and configuration information is available from Sun Microsystems or at http://www.sun.com/storage .

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $8 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the WorldWide Web at http://www.sun.com .

About Veritas Software

Veritas Software designs, develops and markets enterprise storage management and high-availability products for business-critical computing systems. The products are designed to improve system performance, availability and manageability while reducing the cost of administration. Veritas products are licensed as source products to more than 50 OEMs worldwide.

Shrink-wrapped versions of the products for Sun SPARC(TM) Solaris, Windows NT and HP-UX, are currently sold through a growing channel of Veritas authorized channel partners in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. The publicly held (NASDAQ:VRTS) company's world headquarters are located at 1600 Plymouth Street, Mountain View, CA 94043. Telephone [phone]. Fax [phone]. E-mail vx- [email protected] WWW site: http://www.veritas.com .

About Storage Technology Corp.

StorageTek (NYSE:STK) is the preeminent provider of network computing storage. The company's products and services are used to store, transport and secure more than 100 petabytes of the world's information, ranging from mainframe data to client/server applications to video and audio. The company, based in Louisville, Colo., reported earnings of $180.3 million on revenue of $2.04 billion in 1996. Information on StorageTek is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.storagetek.com and http://www.network.com .

For more information, call 415/786-3205. EN