ENTERTAINMENT

BlueArc Corporation, provider of the world’s highest performance, most scalable network storage systems, today announced that the company’s Titan storage system, in combination with Intel Xeon-powered CommuniGate servers, has achieved a new world record result for SPECmail message capacity and performance. BlueArc’s Titan sustained a performance level of 12,500 SPECmail messages per minute, or the equivalent of two and a half million SPECmail users, sending 30 million e-mail messages per day. High-performance storage solutions are mission critical for ISPs, Broadband providers, and enterprises with strenuous e-mail environments, particularly as worldwide e-mail traffic continues to rise. According to a recent study from The Radicati Group, e-mail traffic increased 35 percent in 2004, to a level of 76.8 billion messages per day. Of this e-mail traffic, approximately 83 percent was corporate e-mail. SPECmail is a standardized benchmark developed by messaging vendors and research organizations that measures mail server performance using a real-world workload. The SPECmail benchmark was achieved utilizing BlueArc’s Titan system, connected to front-end and back-end Intel Xeon-based CommuniGate Pro servers. SPEC or Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, also sets the SPECsfs® benchmark, where Titan set a record last fall for single system file server throughput and response times. "BlueArc's Titan has raised the bar on performance and capacity for network storage," said Mike Gustafson, President and CEO for BlueArc Corporation. "Titan is a leader when it comes to supporting the world's most demanding storage requirements as our customers' storage demands grow, and as proven, nothing else in the market comes close to matching the performance of the Titan product today. Based on its unique architecture and scalability, we expect to maintain this lead to the benefit of our customers and ISP clients across the world." "Intel, working with companies like BlueArc and CommuniGate Systems, are committed to delivering leading-edge performance that supports the world’s most taxing e-mail environments," said Dan Johnson, Strategic Relationship Manager, for Intel Corporation. "We are pleased to continue playing a leading role in delivering innovation for customers." "CommuniGate Systems is excited to be a part of this new world record for performance and capacity of message storage and retrieval," said Thom O’Connor, Director of Product Architecture, for CommuniGate Systems. "The combination of BlueArc’s Titan and the CommuniGate Pro Real-Time Application Server delivers a complete solution for voice and data communication in the ISP, Broadband and Telcom markets by offering the most features, reliability, and scalability on the market." BlueArc’s Titan storage system is backed by a unique hardware-accelerated architecture that allows customers to scale their storage systems far beyond any other servers available on the market today. Titan allows a single file system to grow up to 256 terabytes and delivers throughput of up to 20 Gigabits per second (Gbps). The architecture adapts to changing application or capacity needs, thus simplifying management, accelerating productivity and protecting a customer’s long-term investment. "For more than three years, Knology has relied on BlueArc to provide uncompromising server performance and capacity, enabling us to provide e-mail access and hosting for more than 100,000 broadband customers with a single Titan system," said Bradley Frye, Senior Manager of Network Data Operations, for Knology, a leading provider of interactive communications and entertainment services in the Southeast United States. "With Titan at the core of our service offering, we are prepared for continued rapid growth, and do not see service degradation during peak user load." For more details about the SPECmail benchmark and a current list of validated results, please visit www.spec.org/mail2001/results/mail2001.html.