Emulex, LSI, Oracle And Seagate Join Forces To Collaborate On Reducing System Downtime With Groundbreaking Data Integrity Initiative

Emulex (NYSE:ELX), LSI (NYSE:LSI), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) and Seagate (NYSE:STX) today announced the Data Integrity Initiative (DII), an unprecedented technology collaboration that leverages and extends the T10 DIF standard to enable complete end-to-end data integrity for enterprise storage systems.

Maintaining data integrity is vital for a range of businesses today that rely on critical records and information including those in the financial, healthcare, and government fields. The DII technology employs standardized data checking mechanisms that allow each storage component to continuously monitor the integrity of data -- both in-flight and at rest. This technology allows rigorous data checking to occur, starting with the software application, all the way through the storage and file system, and ending on the disk drive. The technology not only detects, but also isolates and reports the sources of error and data corruption, helping data centers avoid lengthy downtime and associated costs.

“As part of the larger Data Integrity Initiative, Emulex is committed to working with industry-leading partners to drive an end-to-end approach to data integrity,” said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Emulex. “As a founding member of the DII, Emulex is committed to delivering its BlockGuard(tm) technology to ensure the integrity of user data as it is transferred from the application to the SAN.”

“Leveraging the integrity features that began with Oracle’s Hardware Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) initiative, DII marks an important advancement, and will offer our Oracle Database and Linux users added data integrity and peace of mind,” said Wim Coekaerts, vice president, Linux Engineering, Oracle. “We are excited that our work to implement DII technology in the Linux kernel will allow applications and kernel subsystems to take advantage of these crucial data integrity features.”

“LSI is committed to improving data integrity and supporting standards,” said Phil Bullinger, senior vice president, Engenio Storage Group, LSI Corporation. “End-to-end data protection cannot be achieved by a single vendor; and therefore requires a multi-vendor initiative such as the DII. We look forward to developing the technologies in the DII to build even greater value into our industry-leading storage systems.”

“Seagate was a founding member that helped define the initial T10 DIF standard and we will continue to invest engineering resources toward technology solutions such as DII that offer benefits to the enterprise,” said Sherman Black, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate Enterprise Compute Business. “This technology builds on the extensive data protection mechanisms already incorporated in Seagate’s enterprise-class drives and furthers our commitment to providing best-in-class mission critical products for our customers.”

As part of the Data Integrity Initiative, Emulex and Oracle are showcasing a technology demonstration at Storage Networking World in San Diego, CA on April 17-19, 2007. The demonstration features Oracle Database 10g with Oracle Automatic Storage Management connected to a SAN via Emulex 4Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs featuring BlockGuard, running on the Linux platform, and highlights how corrupted data can be flagged, identified and remediated, to avoid system downtime. This industry-leading, first-of-its-kind technology demonstration promises to bring enterprise-class data integrity to the Linux platform, resulting in reduced system downtime and cost savings for end-users.