1 February 2012 – Denver, London, Sydney – Gresham Storage completes another successful year, extends EDT to all TSM users and makes new hires

Gresham Storage is pleased to announce another year of solid performance for fiscal 2011 together with further investment in the business and product for 2012 and beyond. Despite tough economic conditions in our global customer base, we continued to deliver excellent financial performance for fiscal 2011 whilst also increasing investment in our business.

Product innovation – we are pleased to continued extension of EDT to the wider Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) market, with SCSI drive, Fibre Channel and Virtual Tape environments now being controlled by our major customers. EDT v10 now offers all TSM users the opportunity to benefit from this very robust and fully functional tape environment management product.

New sales and technical hires – Gresham is pleased to announce the strengthening of its EDT sales and technical teams out of a new office in Parker, Colorado. Cori Mumford joins the team to help drive sales of EDT v10 across the TSM user base and David Miller as an experienced software technician focused on testing EDTv10.

Christopher Young, EVP Gresham Storage, commented:
“2011 was a great year for Gresham Storage, with a strong financial result, the launch of EDT v10 and a strengthening of our team. Customer feedback on our new EDTv10 software has been excellent and I look forward to further deployments in 2012. If you are using TSM, then you should be talking to us about EDT v10.”

About Gresham’s flagship product, EDT:

Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) allows Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) users to:

• achieve optimal tape resource utilization
• minimize tape asset access times
• create highly resilient tape environments
• eliminate performance bottlenecks
• maximize data throughput

EDT achieves this via its HBA load balancing, data path failover and library virtualization features combined with intimate knowledge of the capabilities of a user’s chosen tape hardware. EDT enables organizations to better control CAPEX and OPEX within their tape environment and take full advantage of tape by making smarter use of tape assets, while reducing their total cost of tape ownership.

About Gresham Storage

Gresham Storage is a specialist provider of software based tape optimization and management solutions to customers seeking to build robust, easy to manage, high performance backup and archive environments. We have a well-established customer base that spans the globe with many household names counted amongst the customers we serve. Gresham Storage is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gresham Computing plc, an international software and services company founded in 1969 and listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (GHT.L).

Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) version 8.x will go out of service (no longer be available for download) on July 1, 2012.

EDT version 8.x will continue to be supported through December 31, 2012. After that date, only EDT 10.x and higher will be supported.

Who is Affected By This Change

Anyone who is currently running EDT version 8 will need to upgrade to EDT version 10.x.

Recommendations

Upgrade to version 10.x of EDT.

Due to numerous enhancements, including support for all tape library types (virtual and physical), access to EDT 10.x is only available via paid professional services engagement focused on educating clients on the new features, configuration options and how to take full advantage of version 10 functionality. It is recommended that you engage Gresham to assist you with this upgrade before July 1, 2012.

The current field releases are:

• EDT 10.1 with ControlCenter 10.1
• EDT 8.5.2 with ControlCenter 8.5.2

The recommended upgrade procedure is as follows:

• Contact Gresham sales to arrange a time and date for Gresham’s professional services personnel to perform the upgrade. The engagement generally lasts 1-2 days depending on the complexity of your environment. The engagement emphasizes education on the deployment, configuration and use of EDT 10.x so it is important to choose a date and time when those individuals who will be responsible for administering EDT 10.x are available.

Note: EDT 8.x and 10.x can coexist. It is not necessary to upgrade every instance of EDT 8.x to 10.x at one time. However, it is recommended that you complete the migration of your entire EDT environment to version 10.x before July 1, 2012 and certainly before December 31, 2012.

License Key: When upgrading to EDT 10, you will be given a new single license key, which will be deployed on the Library / License Management Server (LMS) installed during the EDT 8 → EDT 10 upgrade. The LMS acts as a central licensing system within your environment and your license key will allow you to run the number of EDT instances in your environment for which you have paid.

Additional Information on EDT 10

Additional information about EDT 10 can be found at the following locations:

• Enterprise DistribuTape Product Page
• EDT 10 Documentation

Questions?

If you have additional questions, please contact either our sales team or technical support team.

Sales

Americas: +1 (512) 407_ 2699
9am-5pm CST (Monday-Friday)

EMEA: +44 (0) 207_ 870 1001
9am-5pm GMT (Monday-Friday)

Email: info@greshamstorage.com

Support

Americas: +1 (512) 407_ 2680
EMEA: +44 (0)1489_ 555599

Email: support@greshamstorage.com

What is this notice about?

• Changes to license management processes and facilities

Who’s affected?

• Customers who currently use Gresham’s Online Licensing System (CLW)

When are changes occurring?

• January 1, 2012

Will these changes impact the operation of my software?

• No. The changes being made will not impact the operation of your Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) software. The only impact will be the way you obtain license keys from Gresham.

Dear Customer:

At Gresham Storage we are constantly looking for ways to improve the products and services we offer. We listen closely to what you are asking for and we regularly review support cases that are being logged looking for areas where our customers may be experiencing problems. With our customers’ ever expanding storage infrastructure requirements, license key management and administration have been highlighted as issues for our users. As a result, we have simplified the license keying of our software, Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) and we will be discontinuing our Client Licensing Website (CLW), which can be accessed at http://license.greshamstorage.com/license.

The following outlines what you can expect:

First, we have implemented a single license key feature in our EDT version 10 software. This will greatly simplify the key management process and represents a significant time saving for our users. EDT v10 is available to any customer with a valid support and maintenance agreement. A small amount of professional services from Gresham (typically 1-2 days performed remotely) will be required to cover education on this new release along with assistance starting the upgrade process. For further information, please contact sales@greshamstorage.com.

Second, the CLW site will be taken offline as of October 31, 2011. As of that date, we will produce a report detailing all licenses that you have recorded in the system and we will make this report available to you for your records.

Finally, even prior to January 1st, 2012 and the discontinuation of the CLW system, we are asking you to begin using the following email alias for all licensing related needs: licensing@greshamstorage.com. Whether you need to deactivate an existing license key, generate a new key or request a temporary key, please send your request to licensing@greshamstorage.com and we will assist you. Note: if you are running EDT v10 you can perform all license management functions via the new EDT v10 license management screen.

It is our belief that these changes will make license management easier for you and we hope that you will agree. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us: info@greshamstorage.com.

Sincerely,

The Gresham Storage Team

Gresham, today, announced its EDT Reports offering. Delivered as a managed service, Gresham’s EDT Reports offers in depth information about the operation of tape environments. With direct integration with Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT), EDT Reports enables companies to see how efficiently their tape environment is operating, provides information necessary to quickly identify problems and get them fixed and stops companies from purchasing expense and superfluous tape assets by showing them when and how existing assets are being used.

An online demonstration of EDT reports is available at http://www.greshamstorage.com/products/edt-reports/edt-reports-demonstration. Gresham is also offering a free 30-day trial of EDT Reports to existing customers. Interested parties should contact Gresham to make the necessary arrangements.

Gresham Storage Solutions is pleased to announce the introduction of Host Bus Adapter (“HBA”) load balancing in its latest release of its Enterprise DistribuTape (“EDT”) software, version 8.2.

Optimal Performance

Every day thousands of backup administrators struggle with the challenges of how to overcome bottlenecks in their backup environment and improve the performance of their backups. Even when they have access to the hardware they need they often swap one challenge for another – a lack of resources for administrative and configuration complexity. EDT 8.2 solves this challenge by introducing HBA load balancing.

EDT’s HBA load balancing feature can be used with any tape drive and any HBA making it the ideal solution for every Tivoli Storage Manager (“TSM”) backup environment. It automatically mounts backups on HBAs with the least activity to minimize bottlenecks. HBA load balancing forms another key part of Gresham’s ongoing efforts to streamline, optimize and simplify backups. Easy to configure and 100% compatible with all of EDT’s other tape library optimization functions (such as balanced drive usage, mount time minimization and automatic error recovery) HBA load balancing gives backup administrators a critical weapon in the fight to realize optimal backup performance.

Can I benefit from EDT’s HBA load balancing feature?

If you use TSM, yes! EDT version 8.2 is designed to work with TSM and Oracle SUN ACSLS tape libraries. If this represents your environment then you can take advantage of EDT today. If you use TSM but you do not use an ACSLS controlled tape library watch this space as Gresham will be releasing EDT 10 later this year which will support both SCSI / FC and ACSLS controlled tape libraries, which will, of course, support HBA load balancing as well.

Can I trial Gresham EnterpriseDistribuTape?

Yes. Please contact us to arrange a free trial today.

Notes to editors

Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) was launched in 1995 and represents a tried, tested and robust way to connect Oracle SUN ACSLS tape libraries to TSM backup environments.

June 15, 2010 – Gresham Storage Solutions (www.greshamstorage.com) and Rocket Software (www.rocketsoftware.com) today announced a strategic relationship that will allow managers of enterprise tape storage systems using IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) to improve resource allocation and cost efficiency across their data storage infrastructure through enhanced tape library reporting leveraging Rocket’s Servergraph products.

Christopher Young, Executive Vice President of Gresham says: “The partnership between Gresham and Rocket will benefit EDT and Servergraph customers alike. We are committed to making ongoing enhancements to our product lines providing richer and more meaningful information about the tape environment to our customers. The costs of managing an extensive tape library can easily run hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Partnering with Rocket means we now offer the business intelligence needed to allocate resources on a predictable basis as opposed to reacting to shortages and paying top dollar for new media such as tapes or drives.”

Don Becker, Business Area Executive for Servergraph, says, “With the combination of the information provided by Servergraph and Gresham’s EDT, the critical information backup administrators require to successfully manage their environment just got significantly richer. Administrators need key pieces of information to proactively manage their environments, and now they have it.”

Young also notes that, “Our Enterprise DistribuTape software is the industry standard for enhancing tape library management in TSM environments among Global 2000 companies. The introduction of support for SCSI libraries in our Gresham Enterprise Media Manager (GEMM) product later this year significantly enhances our solution. Our products excel at streamlining, optimizing and simplifying tape management, and they deliver high performance through features like HBA load balancing. Reporting, though, has been a weakness of our products in the past. Partnering with Rocket Software gives us the tools we need to deliver a complete management experience.”

About Rocket Software

Rocket Software (www.rocketsoftware.com) is a global software development firm that builds and services Enterprise Infrastructure products for the world’s leading OEMs, networks and software companies and enterprises. The company’s products complement and extend strategic infrastructure in the areas of: application modernization, business intelligence, compliance and security, consumer productivity, database servers, database tools, file transfer, mainframe productivity, network management, publishing and search, SOA and integration, storage management, terminal emulation, and text mining. Rocket is engaged in business and technology partnerships with IBM, EMC, RSA (the security division of EMC), HP Enterprise Services, Avaya, Motorola, and many others. Rocket Software is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.

AUSTIN, Texas, August 13th, 2009 – Gresham today announced that KBC Bank, an existing customer, has deepened its relationship with Gresham and agreed to a multiple year site license for its Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) product as part of a move on the bank’s part to a standardized backup environment. Reasons cited by KBC for extending its use of EDT include operational cost-savings, improved tape library utilization, greater resiliency and “green” benefits.

Operational Cost-Savings

KBC, a Gresham customer since 2003, has benefited greatly from its adoption of Gresham’s Clareti Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) product. EDT has been the glue between KBC’s backup servers and its tape libraries. EDT has consistently allowed KBC to maximize the utilization of the tape drives that are installed in their libraries slowing the rate at which they would have otherwise needed to acquire new tape drives. EDT’s error handling capabilities have also decreased the number of backup failures, decreasing the amount of time required to administer the environment. “EDT has helped us streamline our backup environment” says Guy Haeck, General Manager ICT Infrastructure, KBC. He went on to say “by managing the connection between our servers and tape libraries, EDT gives us peace of mind in knowing that problems with our backups will be minimal and utilization of our drives will be high.”

Better Utilization and Greater Resiliency

“The advantage that EDT delivers to businesses is the ability to make better use of expensive tape assets. While other companies may claim to offer this through tape drive sharing, only by having a deep understanding of how the tape library works and being able to fully expose all of its features and functions can a truly optimized, highly resilient solution be created” said Christopher S. Young, Business Unit Director, Gresham Storage Solutions. “We have spent years perfecting EDT to ensure it delivers optimal tape utilization and exceptional resiliency. KBC is an excellent example of a firm that understands the importance of taking advantage of EDT to ensure its backups run in the most efficient manner, at the lowest possible cost and with the greatest peace of mind.”

“Green” Benefits

KBC recognizes the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and tries to minimize its impact on the environment. KBC sees EDT as an enabling technology in this pursuit. “EDT lets us make more efficient use of existing tape assets. It saves us from having to buy new tape drives that mean we use less power and generate less heat” said Peter Praet, Project Leader ICT Infrastructure, KBC. “EDT also lets us do more backups directly from multiple servers using LAN-Free and this saves us from having to have as much disk on hand to stage these backups. That saves power and heat too and to us, everything that we can do to minimize our impact on the environment is worthwhile.”

KBC is only one of numerous Global 2000 organizations that are benefiting from EDT and its ability to decrease operational costs, improve tape library utilization, insulate backups from errors and deliver indirect “green” benefits. EDT is available on Windows, UNIX and Linux operating systems and supports SUN ACSLS, IBM 3494* and Quantum DAS/SDLC* controlled tape libraries in Tivoli Storage Manager backup environments.

Austin, TX, April 3, 2008: Gresham Enterprise Storage, the leading developer of data protection solutions with vision, announced today the release of Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) 8.1 and ControlCenter Enterprise (CCE). EDT software is an external library manager for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM), adding intelligence to the backup environment and value to the bottom line. With the latest EDT release and CCE, TSM administrators will experience improved start-up time, reduced mount time, and reduced downtime. ControlCenter Enterprise includes a new PathWatch® module which provides alternate pathing for communication requests to the library media manager (ACSLS or Library Manager).

The enhanced ControlCenter management console is a user friendly GUI for centralized management of all the functions and tasks between TSM, EDT and ACSLS. CCE has the ability to recognize a library’s physical characteristics, which can greatly reduce mount times as drives are selected that are closest to the tape volume’s physical location in the library. This capability reduces the need for elevator and pass-thru port rides.

Jeannine Walter, Tivoli Certified Consultant, commented “Bottom-line, EDT 8.1 with CCE saves time and money. Allowing users to simply manage tape drives, discover orphaned volumes and effectively track media for quick disaster recovery operations leads to reduced operating costs, improved efficiency and quicker data recovery.“

The new EDT-PathWatch function allows users to monitor the communication path(s) to the media manager (ACSLS or Library Station). It presents stop/go lights for each path in the Media Manager list on the main CCE administration panel. Additionally, failover capabilities allow users to switch to an alternative communications path, providing a library connection if one of the paths to the media manager fails.

To summarize, the functionality of EDT 8.1 and ControlCenter Enterprise offers improved start-up time, reduced mount time and reduced downtime-which are just a few of the benefits gained by implementing EDT and CCE into any TSM/SUN library environment.

To learn more about EDT version 8.1, visit Gresham at Storage Networking World, April 7-10th in Orlando, FL at booth #1500, or go to www.greshamstorage.com.

The following products will go out of service (no longer be available for download) on March 31, 2008:

• Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) Version 6
• Enterprise DistribuTape (EDT) Version 7.3
• ControlCenter (CC) Version 3.1
• ControlCenter (CC) Version 3.2
• ControlCenter (CC) Version 3.3
• ControlCenter (CC) Version 3.4

This also means that the following operating systems and products will no longer be supported by EDT:

• AIX 5.1
• AIX 5.2
• Solaris 7
• Windows 2000
• TSM 5.1
• TSM 5.2
• ACSLS 6
• ACSLS 7.0
• LibStation 4
• LibStation 5
• LibStation 6

EDT 6 and EDT 7.3 will be supported through June 30, 2008. After that date, only EDT 7.4.x and EDT 8 and higher will be supported. This means that ACSLS 7.1 or higher and LibStation 6.1 or higher will continue to be supported by EDT.

Who is Affected By This Change

Anyone who is currently running EDT Version 6 with ControlCenter, PathWatch, AutoClear, AIX, Solaris, TSM, ACSLS, or LibStation at the levels listed above needs to upgrade the associated component(s). EDT only supports IBM 3494 on the AIX operating system.

EDT support for ADIC SDLC libraries is unaffected.

Recommendations

Upgrade to version 8 of EDT. You can download the installation package for EDT 8 from the Gresham Licensing Server. This installation package includes ControlCenter, which now has automated Drive Clearing. Therefore, by upgrading to EDT 8, you will no longer need the AutoClear module. You should perform this upgrade before June 30, 2008. (Note: PathWatch functions will be available in EDT 8.1)

The current field releases are:

• EDT 7.4.3 with ControlCenter 3.5 or ControlCenter 3.1
• EDT 8 with ControlCenter 8

The recommended upgrade procedure is as follows:

1. Download the installation package for EDT 8 from the Gresham Licensing Server. This installation package includes EDT, the ControlCenter Node Server, and the ControlCenter Administration Client.
2. Use this installation package to install the ControlCenter Node Server and EDT 8 on each of your TSM/EDT servers. Now you have both the old and new versions of EDT on each server. However, the new version is not yet configured and operative.
3. During the installation you will be asked if you wish to install the ControlCenter 8 Administration Client. Do not do so at this time.
4. Using the EDT 8 installation package, install only the ControlCenter 8 Administration Client (not the Node Server, and not EDT) on a different (temporary) machine.
5. During the installation you will be asked if you wish to install the Node Server and/or EDT on this machine. Decline these options. All you need on this temporary machine is the Administration Client.
6. Now use this Administration Client to contact each TSM/EDT server.
7. When the Administration Client first contacts each Node Server, the Node Server will report that you have 2 verisons of EDT installed on the same server. The Administration Client’s Upgrade Wizard will then prompt you with a screen asking if you wish to upgrade. Answer yes to all of the options. This will copy your old EDT configuration into the new configuration file for EDT 8.
8. Once you have upgraded all of the EDT nodes from the temporary machine, return to each of the EDT nodes and use the installation package to install the ControlCenter Administration Client.
9. Return to the temporary machine and remove the temporary ControlCenter Administration Client. You no longer need it (unless you wish to continue using this machine to administer all of your EDT nodes).
10. You are now using EDT 8 on your servers. Whenever you are satisified that EDT 8 is working correctly you can remove the older version.

Important: Gresham Technical Support for the migration transition is limited to working through issues that may arise during migration to the newer EDT releases and finding alternate solutions, where applicable. During the migration transition period, any EDT 6.x, ControlCenter 3.1 and 3.2, or PW/AC 3.0 defects will not be fixed, and customers will be asked to upgrade to the latest version of the products.

License Key: When upgrading to EDT 8, you must generate a new EDT key from the Gresham Licensing Server. See the section below called “Gresham Licensing Server Tips”.

Additional Migration Information

Additional information about migrating from EDT 6 to EDT 8 can be found at the following locations:

• On our technical support webpage
• In the Product Manuals