COPAN SYSTEMS ENTERS PARTNERSHIP WITH IN-Q-TEL

Strategic Agreement Plays Key Role in Intorducing Enterprise-Class MAID Storage Solutions to US Intelligence Community

January 30, 2007

COPAN Systems, the leader in persistent data storage based upon its intelligent, enterprise-class enhanced MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) platform, today announces an agreement with In-Q-Tel, the independent strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technologies to support the mission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the broader Intelligence Community.

“Our goal is to deliver innovative technology from the commercial sector to help solve some of the most difficult challenges faced by the Intelligence Community today,” said Dr. Richard Wirt, In-Q-Tel’s Chief Scientist. “Some of the biggest challenges faced by the Intelligence Community are created by the massive amounts of data generated and the need for timely access to that information. COPAN Systems’ Enhanced MAID architecture is especially suited to provide the scalability and performance needed to address these issues.”

In-Q-Tel has signed an initial business development agreement with COPAN Systems focused on making the company’s successful MAID solutions available to the government and national security markets. This supports COPAN’s goals of expanding its sales into the U.S. and International government sectors. The company currently maintains a growing direct and channel sales presence in the Washington, D.C. area.

Today’s data center managers recognize that 70 to 90 percent of the data in their data centers is not transactional in nature but is instead persistent data, data that rarely changes and is infrequently accessed. To address the unique requirements of persistent data, COPAN Systems has implemented a Persistent Data Storage Architecture (PDSA) that takes advantage of enhanced MAID’s spin-only-when-needed capabilities to limit the maximum number of disks in use at any given time, reducing power and cooling requirements in the data center.

“This new partnership with In-Q-Tel is strategic in advancing the development and deployment of power efficient, massively dense, and reliable systems to the government market,” said Mark Ward, CEO of COPAN Systems. “We are pleased to partner with In-Q-Tel to make our unique MAID platform technology available to the U.S. Intelligence Community.”

About COPAN Systems
COPAN Systems is the leading provider of intelligent, enterprise-class, enhanced MAID storage solutions that unlock the value of long-term, persistent data. Its energy efficient storage solutions reduce power and cooling costs in the data center with enhanced MAID’s unique ability to spin the hard drives only as needed to dramatically conserve power and lengthen the product lifespan. The company is privately held with investments by Austin Ventures, Globespan Capital, Pequot Ventures, and Credit Suisse. COPAN Systems’ storage solutions have been shipping since March 2004, with customers spanning the healthcare, financial, government, media, and service provider industries. Solution implementations include backup/restore, archive, and disaster recovery. More information is available at http://www.COPANsys.com.