SAN JOSE, Calif., December 5, 2001 - Continuing to deliver the latest in network resiliency, high-availability, and business continuance capabilities across its metro optical networking portfolio, Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that the Cisco ONS 15540 Extended Services Platform is now interoperable with the Compaq SANworks Data Replication Manager (DRM) System, a software-based disaster recovery solution for storage area networks (SANs) in local and extended domains.

Compaq confirmed laboratory interoperability after completing integration testing that included numerous storage recovery and restore functions such as synchronous and asynchronous remote copy, as well as a variety of failover scenarios. Applications tested included Fibre Channel extension over metro-area distances and support for Compaq StorageWorks MA8000/EMA12000 storage solutions.

"More than ever, customers today are turning to storage and network systems vendors to provide effective solutions for business continuance as an integral part of their overall IT strategies," said Mark Sorenson, vice president of Compaq Storage Software and Solution Division. "Compaq's collaboration with Cisco combines the best of our respective technologies to achieve disaster recovery over greater distances using an ultra high-bandwidth optical infrastructure."

A part of the Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge & Transport portfolio (see COMET announcement at http://newsroom.cisco.com), the Cisco ONS 15540 is a fully modular and scalable system with unparalleled service density, able to handle new applications and constantly increasing network demands. It is built on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, which enables a fiber pair to be utilized simultaneously by multiple optical wavelengths. Each wavelength represents a unique high-speed connection. Applications, protocols, or organizations can each be assigned a separate wavelength.

The Cisco ONS 15540 makes it possible for customers to cost effectively and transparently multiplex numerous data streams, each of which can be a different protocol and can run at different speeds, across a single fiber pair. In addition, service providers can provision wavelengths to customers and charge per number of wavelengths used. Designed to meet enterprises' and service providers' evolving demands for bandwidth, manageability and channel density, the Cisco ONS 15540 provides unprecedented scalability and flexibility.

"We have and will continue to test the Cisco ONS 15540 in the most demanding storage networking environments because it is a key requirement for many of our metro DWDM customers," said Carl Engineer, senior director of marketing for the Metropolitan Services Business Unit at Cisco. "This latest success with Compaq will benefit customers of both companies by adding more network resiliency and network design flexibility to existing and new DRM installations."

About Cisco's Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport Portfolio

The Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety, and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP+Optical networking. Supporting TDM, Ethernet, IP, Storage, and Wavelength services over SONET and DWDM with integrated bandwidth management and end-to-end provisioning, the Cisco COMET portfolio offers efficient, unprecedented flexibility and capacity. With the Cisco COMET portfolio, enterprises and service providers drive profitability and accelerate IP+Optical networking.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Information on Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.

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