Landmark Introduces Innovative Data-Compression Appliance To The E&P Industry

HOUSTON, TX – Landmark, a product service line of Halliburton’s (NYSE: HAL) Drilling and Evaluation Division today, today introduced an innovative new data-compression appliance at the annual meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) in San Antonio (Booth #1512).

The device, known as the Storwize STN 6000™, is capable of tripling E&P data-storage capacities through real-time storage compression – a feature that efficiently and effectively improves storage space without the purchase of additional storage devices. Installation of the Storwize STN 6000 does not require any changes to existing infrastructure. The compression operations are invisible to users, while application and storage performance increase as a result of the device.

The appliance is produced by Storwize, Inc., a Landmark strategic partner and provider of online storage-compression technology based in San Jose, Calif. The Storwize STN 6000 is the latest offering from Landmark’s Optimized Computing Solutions & Services (OCS&S) group. As the preferred provider for the STN 6000 in the E&P industry, Landmark offers global delivery and installation of the product, as well as deployment and integration services. Moreover, Landmark has thoroughly tested the appliance to ensure it is ready for the intense needs of the E&P industry. For example, an independent oil and gas company has tried out the device and seen an average seismic-data compression rate of 50 percent. Landmark has also tested the product with a global provider of geophysical services, where it experienced similarly impressive results.

The Storwize STN 6000 is designed to work with any network attached storage array, including those from leading providers like EMC and NetApp. It delivers real-time, lossless, data compression and decompression at speeds that make it transparent to users. Storwize’s technology uses patent-pending algorithms that can reduce operating expenses associated with a customer’s current storage units. For example, the technology can delay migrations to additional storage units and also lower costs associated with power, air conditioning, and available floor space. Because the appliance compresses massive amounts of data prior to back-up, it can reduce downtime and shorten back-up and restore cycles. In addition, it can reduce the amount of data sent over wide-area networks for remote back-up.

Such benefits in primary storage immediately lead to savings across the entire storage lifecycle, including secondary storage and back-up systems. The Storwize STN 6000’s benefits are particularly useful in the E&P industry, where users generate terabytes of data each day.

“E&P data costs millions of dollars, making it a critical business asset for any petroleum company,” said Chris Usher, senior director of technology, Landmark. “Because of this, we thoroughly tested the Storwize solution with multiple types of data, ensuring thatthere was no data loss and a negligible performance hit with the compression. In fact, we were able to achieve compression ratios as high as 80 percent, depending on the file type.”

Since the typical E&P company works with hundreds of terabytes, or even petabytes, of data, Storwize’s technology offers what Usher calls a “compelling value proposition within current storage infrastructures.”

Gal Naor, CEO of Storwize, backs this assertion: “With the massive amounts of data produced by oil and gas companies today, the most logical course of action is to simply reduce the quantity of information saved in primary storage, while maintaining all of its intrinsic value. Our data compression technology is a boon to companies looking to minimize the physical limitations of storing large quantities of data, and also alleviating the strain in IT hardware and personnel budgets.”

Storwize, Inc. is a leading provider of data compression solutions that dramatically boost storage space on network storage environments. Storwize appliances are installed between the organization’s storage arrays and their network. Designed to work with any storage array it is connected to, the Storwize appliance typically provides organizations with 2-5X additional capacity with associated savings in capital, operational, maintenance and management resources. Storwize solutions have been successfully tested for interoperability with leading storage vendors such as EMC and NetApp. More than 120 Storwize appliances have shipped worldwide. Privately held and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Storwize is a member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and has gained an ISO 9001:2000 certification. For more information, visit www.storwize.com. Landmark is the leading supplier of software, optimized computing solutions and services for the upstream oil and gas industry. The company’s software solutions span exploration, production, drilling, business-decision analysis and data management. Landmark offers a broad range of consulting, services and infrastructure technologies that enable customers to optimize their technical, business and decision processes. Visit the Landmark Web site at www.halliburton.com/landmark for more information.

Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With nearly 50,000 employees in approximately 70 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir-from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field. Visit the company’s Web site at www.halliburton.com.