Geneva, Switzerland—September 25, 2000—GENROCO, Inc. (GENROCO) (OTC Bulletin Board: "GRCI"), an I/O solutions developer for users of high performance storage area networks (SANs) and Tivoli Systems Inc., the leader in managing the foundations of e-business, teamed up to demonstrate SAN storage sharing over a Gigabit Ethernet network at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, September 15. CERN, one of the most revered technology laboratories in the world and famed as birthplace of the World Wide Web, was chosen as a fitting location for this glimpse of the future of both SAN and LAN technology.

The GENROCO Internet Storage Router (iSR) provides a facility to transport SCSI data over Gigabit Ethernet networks between Fibre Channel storage devices and computers. Tivoli SANergy is the industry’s leading software product enabling the transparent sharing of the same disk volumes and files between SAN-connected computers running any of seven different operating systems including Microsoft® Windows™, Compaq Tru64, Solaris and IBM AIX. The combination of Tivoli SANergy with the iSR provides the high-bandwidth and low processor overhead of SANs with the ease of use, mass-market pricing and single network connection of Gigabit Ethernet.

"For the future generation of high energy physics that will start a couple of years from now, we will need this kind of technology to handle the gigantic quantities of data that will be generated," said Arie Van Praag, a Network Architect for the High Speed Interconnect (HSI) project at CERN. "That is why we’ve started to look around today; so we can be ready in time."

John Webster, a leading storage analyst in the United Kingdom, agrees that Gigabit Ethernet is a viable alternative to Fibre Channel. "The iSR is a unique addition to storage networking infrastructure alternatives," said Webster, Analyst and IT Advisor, Illuminata, Inc. "It is one that we believe will generate significant interest among users investigating ways to bridge IP networks to Fibre Channel-based storage networks."

Whether used with SANs built of Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SCSI, or some other networking technology, network administrators can greatly simplify SAN-storage administration with Tivoli SANergy. Running on the computers connected to the SAN, SANergy enables multiple computers to all share the same disk volumes and even the same files at the same time – across platforms. Tivoli SANergy does this by extending industry-standard networking protocols, permissions and security from the LAN, onto the SAN. With SANergy, the applications running on SAN-connected computers transparently use the storage across the SAN as if it were just storage behind a server across the LAN.

"Tivoli SANergy was a logical choice for this interoperability demonstration," said Don Woelz, Vice President of Marketing at GENROCO. "Tivoli SANergy is supported on a wide variety of platforms and is well integrated into the SCSI architecture, making it device and network independent."

The operation of the GENROCO iSR has its roots in ANSI standard protocols for transporting SCSI commands, data and responses over an efficient network protocol called Scheduled Transfer (ST). "SCSI on ST, or SST, is capable not only of transporting storage on Gigabit Ethernet, but also on high performance networks like HIPPI, OC48, and GSN," commented Woelz. "This technology allows integrators to use the network of their choice for the implementation of SAN configurations."

"The operation of the Internet storage router is transparent to both storage devices and application software," said Chris Stakutis, CTO, Tivoli SANergy. "No modifications are required, which makes it easy for both the network administrator and the user to see the benefits right away."

GENROCO, Inc. is a 26-year-old, publicly traded engineering and marketing company that specializes in developing I/O solutions for users of high performance storage area networks (SANs). By providing cross-platform support for its patented technology, the Company is able to offer unique, extraordinarily high bandwidth, low host overhead products for these markets.

GENROCO enjoys a global customer base that includes Compaq, Fujitsu, SGI, Sun, the US Departments of Defense and Energy, CERN and other research institutions. Additional information about GENROCO can be found at www.genroco.com.

Tivoli software manages the foundations of e-business, extending the boundaries of traditional network and systems management from the data center across the Internet, from the desktop to pervasive devices. Leading companies around the world use Tivoli software, Tivoli Ready third-party products and Team Tivoli partner services to reduce the cost and complexity of managing heterogeneous IT environments. Tivoli solutions, encompassing management of security, storage, and mobile devices, are helping these organizations to create a technology infrastructure to support the next generation of business. For more information, visit www.tivoli.com.

Press Contacts:

COMPANY Tivoli Systems

CONTACT Joyce Humble

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EMAIL joyce.humble@tivoli.com