MILPITAS, California, June 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Innovative, High-Performance Adaptec Series 5Z Unified Serial(R) RAID 
Controllers Reduce Data Center Operating Costs, Enhance Data Protection, and 
Minimize Environmental Hazards

Adaptec, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT), a global leader in data center hardware and
software storage solutions, today announced the availability of the Adaptec
Series 5Z Unified Serial(R) (SATA/SAS) RAID controller family. These
high-performance controllers integrate an industry first, flash-based
Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection module that provides data center managers
with a single controller solution for data protection in the event of both
power loss and drive failure. Designed to replace a current generation of
Lithium Ion battery-based cache back-up devices, the Adaptec RAID Series 5Z
is an integrated solid state solution that significantly reduces annual data
center operating costs and environmental impact. The controllers offer an
integrated, maintenance-free design, eliminating the need to monitor battery
charge levels or shut down servers for battery replacement.

"As enterprise storage demands skyrocket, we see an enormous need for
feature-rich, maintenance-free data storage I/O solutions that work to lower
overall IT costs and provide significant environmental advantages," said
Scott Cleland, director of marketing, Adaptec. "For both SATA and SAS drives,
the Adaptec Series 5Z family not only delivers the performance, scalability
and power efficiency that our customers demand, but with Zero-Maintenance
Cache Protection, it offers a simple, maintenance-free solution that provides
a critical layer of data protection that is often overlooked."

Built on the industry-leading Adaptec RAID Series 5 high-performance
architecture, the Adaptec Series 5Z family offers an innovative approach to
protecting at-risk data held in controller cache and addressing common
battery back-up deficiencies. Since the quickest way for a RAID controller to
fulfill a read or write request is to serve data out of its cache, enabling
and protecting the RAID controller cache offers significant performance
benefits while also safeguarding against the loss of cached data during a
power or system failure. With approximately 1 TB of data residing in cache
for every 3,000 servers, a reliable, easy-to-use back-up solution is
invaluable in case of a system power failure. The Adaptec Series 5Z's
Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection protects data stored in controller cache
for up to 10 years with no installation, monitoring, maintenance, disposal or
replacement costs. Unlike Lithium Ion batteries, Zero-Maintenance Cache
Protection protects cached data immediately, instead of hours after battery
conditioning, providing instant protection and immediate optimized RAID
performance. Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection enhances performance without
the hassles of traditional battery-backup devices.

Environmental & ROI Advantages

The Adaptec Series 5Z family underscores Adaptec's commitment to
developing power-efficient and environmentally-conscious products. Adaptec's
Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection eliminates the need for Lithium Ion battery
hazardous waste disposal previously required in cache-critical computing
applications. In addition, these controllers are exempt from special
International Air Transport Association (IATA) Lithium Ion packaging and
shipping regulations, eliminating the need for costly labeling, testing and
extensive documentation. The Adaptec Series 5Z family also features Adaptec's
innovative Intelligent Power Management, which reduces storage power and
cooling costs by up to 70 percent.

"IT managers and system architects today must identify new technologies
that will both handle the increasing influx of data and offer the lowest
total cost of ownership," said Roger Cox, research vice president, Storage
Research unit, Gartner Group. "Innovative new I/O solutions that optimize
system performance, while at the same time eliminate the need for
maintenance, use less energy and reduce hazardous waste will be highly-valued
in today's data centers and fast growing cloud computing market."

In private traditional data center environments or across massive
scaled-out virtualized data center server environments running VMware
software or Xen, the Return-On-Investment (ROI) potential of the new Adaptec
Series 5Z controllers is significant. This approach can provide substantial
savings by eliminating costly functions, such as: 1) the year-to-year expense
of purchasing replacement batteries, 2) the ongoing costs associated with
downtime when installing/re-charging batteries, and 3) the disruption costs
when a power failure occurs resulting in the loss of data. With the typical
four-year cost of using Lithium Ion batteries adding up to more than
US$2,000(i) per server, the Adaptec Series 5Z family offers the industry's 
most cost-effective, complete and efficient data protection solution.

Industry Support for Adaptec Series 5Z Innovation

Codonics (http://www.codonics.com)

"Ensuring long-term data integrity in the medical industry is critical,
and at Codonics, we strive to design products that deliver a new level of
data protection while improving our customers' operating expenses by reducing
or eliminating field service costs," said Gary Keefe, vice president of new
product development, Codonics. "The Adaptec Series 5Z RAID controllers with
Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection provide a cutting-edge approach to
eliminating the costs and environmental burdens associated with the legacy
battery-backup devices that many medical storage solutions currently design
in. Codonics is excited to continue its partnership with Adaptec and develop
innovative medical products that deliver performance, reliability and value
to our customers."

Penguin Computing (www.penguincomputing.com)

"Until now, customers operating Penguin's High Performance Computing
clusters and associated storage resources had to pay special attention to
regular maintenance of the backup batteries in RAID controllers, resulting in
additional operational costs," said Jussi Kukkonen, director of product
management, Penguin Computing, provider of High Performance Computing
clusters based in San Francisco, Calif. "Adaptec's new Series 5Z RAID
Controllers with Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection eliminate the battery from
this equation without compromising cache protection or performance. It
provides significant new design flexibility for our conventional Linux file
servers and distributed file system building blocks used in high performance
scalable storage solutions. This is a real win-win-win for customers, the
environment and Penguin."

Silicon Mechanics (www.siliconmechanics.com)

"As a leading provider of data center servers, storage and
high-performance computing cluster solutions, Silicon Mechanics is committed
to integrating advanced, innovative technologies that offer our customers
proven cost efficiencies and performance advantages," said Mike Dusche, Vice
President of Sales, Marketing & Products for Silicon Mechanics. "Adaptec's
new Series 5Z is a great example. Its Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection
provides our customers with another level of data protection, and eliminates
the hassle of maintenance, support and the headache of battery disposal."

SoftLayer (www.softlayer.com)

"In our growing on-demand cloud computing environment, the loss of any
mission-critical information found in controller cache - financial
transactions, supply chain instructions, a customer order - during a power
failure or any other type of system interruption, is particularly vulnerable
and can be catastrophic to our customers and to our reputation," said Jacob
Linscott, director of IT systems - Linux, SoftLayer. "Adaptec's new Series 5Z
RAID Controllers with Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection provide an easy,
economical, and environmentally sound solution to virtually eliminate the
possibility that loss of cached data will ever happen."

About Adaptec RAID Series 5Z Unified Serial Controllers

The Adaptec RAID Series 5Z family is ideal for storage systems and
bandwidth intensive storage applications in data centers, such as online
transaction processing servers, web servers, digital surveillance, and
streaming applications. The family consists of three products: Adaptec RAID
5445Z with 8 ports (4 internal and 4 external), Adaptec RAID 5805Z (8
internal ports) and Adaptec RAID 5405Z (4 internal ports). Each member of the
Adaptec Series 5Z family is supported by Adaptec Storage Manager(TM) (ASM),
which centralizes management of all Adaptec RAID products and allows for
local and remote browser or application-based management across the network
from a single console. The Adaptec Series 5Z energy-efficient, low-profile
controllers feature a dual core RAID on Chip (ROC), DDR2 533MHz write cache
and an x8 PCI Express host interface bus connection.

Pricing and Availability

All three Adaptec Series 5Z controllers are shipping and available
through worldwide distributors and resellers. The controllers are priced at
the following MSRPs: Adaptec RAID 5405Z (US$785), Adaptec RAID 5805Z
(US$965), Adaptec RAID 5445Z (US$1,045).

About Adaptec

Adaptec provides innovative data center I/O solutions that ensure data
protection, improve energy-efficiency, and maximize system performance,
resulting in reduced capital and operating expenses. Recognized globally as a
leader in storage technology and solution innovation, Adaptec products are
currently used in IT environments ranging from emerging growth markets such
as on-demand or cloud computing to traditional enterprise data centers.
Adaptec's forward-thinking products and technologies enable data center
managers, channel partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to
deploy best-in-class data center storage solutions to meet their customers'
evolving IT requirements. Around the world, leading corporations, government
organizations, and medium and small businesses trust Adaptec technology. More
information is available at www.adaptec.com. Additional insight into Adaptec
can be found on its blog, http://storageadvisors.adaptec.com, on Facebook,
www.adaptec.com/facebook and Twitter, http://twitter.com/Adaptec_Inc.

Adaptec is a registered trademark and Unified Serial is a trademark in
the United States and other countries. Other company names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners. Adaptec disclaims any and
all rights in these trademarks.

(i) Refer to the Adaptec Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection Feature Brief
at www.adaptec.com/5Z for details

Contact:
    Sara Lee
    Walt & Company for Adaptec
    +1-408-369-7200 ext. 2980
    slee@walt.com
    www.walt.com