MONOSPHERE® ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST SYSTEMATIC STORAGE CAPACITY PLANNING APPLICATION

NEW SOLUTION DELIVERS STRATEGIC VALUE BY OPTIMIZING CAPACITY WITHOUT ASSUMING UNNECESSARY RISK THAT CAN COMPROMISE BUSINESSES

Redwood City, CA – September 28, 2005 – MonoSphere, an independent storage management software innovator, today announced Storage Horizon™, an agent-less capacity planning solution for large and mid-size enterprises.  Storage Horizon organizes thousands of storage elements into application or business unit views, and provides the strategic insight necessary to maximize the utilization of existing and future resources.  By providing clear, accurate, and actionable analysis and forecasting, Storage Horizon delivers significant, ongoing ROI through CapEx and OpEx savings.

“IT departments are experiencing increased pressure to operate as efficient businesses – needing to balance customer service delivery with sound financial decisions.  Unfortunately, existing planning tools, particularly in storage, are woefully inadequate,” said Ray Villeneuve, CEO of MonoSphere.  “The result is over spending on storage due to over provisioning, and excessive forward purchasing to ensure that future storage demand is met.  Technical decisions often do not take into consideration sound financial management of expensive storage assets.”

MonoSphere’s 2004 study of 75 storage architects, directors, and vice presidents highlighted the value of systematic storage capacity planning and the resulting high ROI.  Using a systematic approach, detailed accurate usage data, and advanced business planning tools, customers can easily improve storage utilization to between 70 and 80% without assuming unnecessary risks.  For large enterprises with a $10 million storage budget, a 30% utilization increase saves $3 million in CapEx.  By accurately predicting need, companies can make more timely purchases and take full advantage of declining hardware costs and new technology innovations.  A purchase deferral of two quarters translates into a built-in discount of 12 to 18%.  Systematic capacity planning brings significant strategic value to storage operations.

“Mainframe users have always understood how to do real capacity planning, so they aren't forced into perpetual over buying and over allocating scenarios.  Open systems users just haven't had the tools to perform this function – until now,” said Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst of Enterprise Strategy Group.  “MonoSphere's Storage Horizon brings mainframe-caliber management intelligence to the chaos that is open systems.  People will like this."

Storage Horizon™ Systematic Capacity Planning
Storage Horizon is an agent-less, all software solution that easily discovers, organizes, analyzes, and forecasts storage usage.  It gives IT departments the advanced decision making tools they need to accurately predict and manage storage capacity.  The system makes it very easy to probe and discover storage elements, using industry-standard interfaces and protocols such as WMI, SNMP, and SMI-S.  A sophisticated grouping function can organize thousands of storage elements, so the storage administration team can manage service levels by application category or business unit.  Grouping can be done through initial out-of-the-box views or via configurable parameters set by the user.

• Advanced Queries – Enables users to search for “needles in the haystack,” such as excessive dark storage or potential hot spots.
• Forecast Engine – Uses both advanced statistical time-series analysis and free-hand planning.
• Financial Modeler– Considers growth patterns, dollar value of the storage assets, and age to evaluate investment alternatives.
• Alerts and Notifications – Provides recommended actions based on future events predicted by the Forecast Engine.  Alerts and Notifications can be triggered by specific storage policy parameters and dates set by the user, and linked to email or SMS.
• Report Generator – Facilitates management report preparation for financial and business application reviews.
• Customizable Dashboard – Offers a single-pane-of-glass view for a watch-list of hot items, action-based alerts, notifications, and time-sequenced task lists.

Client Applications
One customer, facing a 100% annual growth rate due to regulatory and application requirements, could not adequately manage their technical or financial demands.  They suspected usage to be at 60%.  But since they could only see allocated data and had no way of predicting growth, they consistently over-provisioned and over-bought.  Without usage or growth projections, they were unable to implement charge-backs, which further impacted the amount of storage over provisioned.  With Storage Horizon, the customer found average utilization to be less than they estimated at only 45% and now expect to drive usage to over 70%.  They can easily provide accurate planning data for their users and implement charge-backs.  They estimate a 7 month payback by improving utilization, deferring purchases by 6 months and improving overall efficiency in the department.  

Rationalizing the Storage Supply Chain
Storage Horizon enables enterprises to balance the conflicting goals of not running out of storage and maximizing capital spending efficiency, thus optimizing their storage supply chain.  Simultaneously, storage system vendors, service providers, and consultants are under pressure to justify and plan storage needs for their end users.  Storage Horizon enables a consultative approach, making it easy for vendors to optimize their demand planning.  Ultimately, Storage Horizon rationalizes the supply and demand chain for both consumers and producers of storage systems.

About MonoSphere
MonoSphere, an independent storage management software innovator, helps large to mid-size enterprises forecast, plan, and optimize their storage capacity. MonoSphere’s agent-less software provides customers with the strategic insight they need to maximize resource utilization while proactively planning for future demand. Unlike first-generation reporting tools, MonoSphere delivers clear, accurate, and actionable recommendations so customers can increase their service levels while reducing capital expenditures – all without assuming unnecessary risks that can compromise business processes.

MonoSphere is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and is led by a team of proven innovators in enterprise management and storage infrastructure software markets. Customers include financial services, technology, life sciences, and telecommunications enterprises. The company has attracted $30 million in backing from top-tier investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and ComVentures. For more information, go to www.monosphere.com.

For more information:
Frank Kettenstock
650-595-3102
frank@monosphere.com