October 17, 2006

Pillar Data Systems demonstrates unprecedented growth after first year in market
~ more than 120 customers and over 200 award-winning systems delivered in just 12 months ~

Pillar Data Systems is celebrating its European one-year anniversary at Storage Expo. Having broken through the 100-customer mark faster than any other storage specialist, the company is attending the storage industry’s showpiece event at London Olympia where it is demonstrating a wide range of products and the capabilities of its Pillar Axiom™ storage platform.

After launching the original Pillar Axiom in Europe just 12 months ago, Pillar added its innovative storage software suite, AxiomONE™, in July this year. To end its first year on a high, the storage challenger beat several technology giants to win the CNET Networks UK 2006 Enterprise Hardware Product of the Year for its Pillar Axiom system.

The facts from the last twelve months speak for themselves:

• European team has grown from four to over 50 people
• Pillar reached the 100-customer mark after only one year in the market
• Pillar has shipped more than 4.5 PB of storage
• In order to provide better customer service and drive growth, Pillar has opened a City office in London as well as new offices in Ireland, Germany and France
• Customers include Insight, the investment arm of HBOS, Play.com, the leading online retailer, Attenda and Hostway both leaders in managed services and application hosting, and Alea, the re-insurance giant.
  Pillar is about to launch its second phase of expansion in Europe.

“External storage array capacity shipped into Western Europe has grown more than 60% within ten of the fourteen quarters between 2003 and 2Q2006,” said Eric Sheppard, Program Manager for IDC's European Storage Systems research. “While this additional capacity places significant burden on IT staff, products such as Pillar Data Systems’ AxiomONE, which integrate a set of software features into a single management suite, could prove to be an effective approach to meeting this challenge.”

“The Pillar Axiom has been a good investment for Play.com,” said Robin Spira, CTO, Play.com. “The storage solution we have gives the company the flexibility it needs to cope with the ever increasing volume of data as the company continues to grow. Pillar’s support at all stages of the implementation from planning and testing through to live installation has always been and continues to be comprehensive.”

“The experience and drive within Pillar is phenomenal,” said Chris Jones, VP sales EMEA, at Pillar Data Systems. “With the backing of one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and a senior executive team with many years of industry experience, the company is set to continue to grow rapidly. Pillar has invested in a product that provides a unique solution to today’s storage problems.”

For more information about the Pillar Axiom visit www.pillardata.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Pillar Data Systems
Pillar Data Systems develops storage solutions that can significantly lower total cost of ownership and dramatically increase storage utilisation rates. The company's Pillar Axiom storage solution, driven by its powerful, simple to manage AxiomONE software suite, consolidates multiple applications, tiers of storage and Quality of Service levels onto a centrally managed platform. Pillar Axiom is the most flexible, easy to manage and dynamically scalable storage system on the market today.

Pillar Data Systems is privately funded by Tako Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Larry Ellison. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California with a development office in Longmont, Colorado. The EMEA headquarters is in Drogheda near Dublin, with operations across Ireland, UK, Germany and France.

Information about Pillar’s award-winning solutions and services is available at www.pillardata.com.
 
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