New ExaGrid EX21000E Appliance Delivers on ‘Backup Without Compromise’ Promise, and Proves Architecture Solves the Backup Challenge – Forever

Westborough, Mass., Oct. 21, 2013 – ExaGrid Systems, the company consistently ranked ‘best at backup’ by leading experts, extends its lead with its latest appliance, the EX21000E.

Like the entire ExaGrid backup family, the new appliance continues to do the inconceivable: it keeps the backup window fixed in time forever, and delivers the fastest restores – regardless of data growth. No other backup architecture can match this commitment, because only ExaGrid solves the compute problems associated with deduplication.

This newest addition to the ExaGrid family extends the company’s founding vision to remove the risk from data protection – and solve the chronic, debilitating and costly problems associated with constantly expanding business data growth.

“IT pros asked us to fix the backup window, and build a solution that doesn’t need to be ripped out and replaced every 18 months. That’s what we’ve done from the beginning, and the EX21000E extends that commitment,” said Bill Andrews, CEO of ExaGrid. “Plain and simple: we offer backup without compromise. Our scale-out architecture has no theoretical limits. It can handle any amount of data. It fixes backup permanently. That’s why we have the industry’s highest customer retention rate.”

The EX21000E scales to 210 terabytes with a 10-appliance grid – and provides 80 percent faster speeds, 62 percent more capacity and 10 percent more throughput per terabyte – all at a lower price point than ExaGrid’s EX13000E, released in 2011. The EX21000E also features an ingest rate of 4.32TB per hour, which increases to an ingest rate of 43.2TB per hour with 10 appliances in a GRID.

The new appliance is available immediately, and integrates with existing ExaGrid appliances seamlessly. The EX21000E can be mixed and matched in the same GRID with all previous ExaGrid models: EX1000, EX2000, EX3000, EX4000, EX5000, EX7000, EX10000E and EX13000E.

Architecture Matters: Compare Scale-Up versus Scale-Out

To work effectively, backup requires an architecture that deals with data growth and deduplication – which are the main drivers affecting the backup window, restore speed and IT budgets.

ExaGrid’s unique scale-out architecture adds computing power with capacity, combined with a unique Landing Zone, to solve the storage problem and the deduplication compute problem. Other available products, including EMC Data Domain, HP D2D, Quantum DXi and Dell 4100, rely on scale-up technology, limiting overall capacity and computing power, requiring costly upgrades regularly.

“Hands down, the most reliable partner we have in the IT department is ExaGrid,” said Sean Jameson, CTO of Sarah Lawrence College. “Our data has grown exponentially over the past three years, and ExaGrid has grown with us seamlessly. The best part? There’s no ceiling, no limitations. The EX21000E gives us complete confidence in the nightly backup, and makes our data accessible at a moment’s notice – exactly as it’s supposed to work.”

Backup Without Compromise

The EX21000E follows through on ExaGrid’s promise to deliver a permanent solution to the backup problem, and is standing by its five-point commitment for every deployment:

1. No backup window growth regardless of data growth
2. The shortest backup window
3. Fastest restores, tape copies and recovery from a disaster
4. VM instant recoveries in minutes
5. Lowest cost solution up front and over time, with no forklift upgrades, obsolescence and a price guarantee

“We need our customers to know that no matter what, we’re here to solve their backup problem – it’s the ExaGrid commitment. Which other storage vendor can match that commitment?” said Andrews.

ExaGrid’s solution, which was effectively ‘crowd-sourced’ by hundreds of IT professionals more than eight years ago, has more than 1,800 customers worldwide. The company’s highly scalable architecture is widely recognized as the market’s most cost-effective approach according to the industry’s latest reports.

About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.

More than 1,800 customers worldwide depend on ExaGrid Systems to solve their backup problems, effectively and permanently. ExaGrid’s disk based, scale-out GRID architecture constantly adjusts to incessant growing data backup demands, and is the only solution that combines compute with capacity and a unique landing zone to permanently shorten backup windows and eliminate expensive forklift upgrades. Read through more than 300 published customer success stories and learn more at www.exagrid.com.

ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.