Cleveland Indians Hit a Data Protection Home Run With Overland's REO Disk-Based and NEO Tape-Based Appliances for Best Practices

Tech-Savvy Baseball Team Now Backs Up Two-Thirds More Video and Operational Data in Half the Time While Lowering Overhead and Scaling to Meet Expanding Storage Demands


SAN DIEGO, Storage Networking World, Booth #G16, April 16
 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overland Storage, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVRL), a leading provider of data protection solutions, today announced that the Cleveland Indians baseball team has deployed a game-winning combination of the company's REO(R) 9000 disk-based backup, recovery and VTL appliance along with the NEO(R) 4000 tape library to safeguard vital on-field video as well as crucial front- and back-office operational data.

The Cleveland Indians have earned a reputation as one of the most technically advanced teams in Major League Baseball. The team was among the first to develop a sophisticated in-house video application to capture every at-bat during home games for training and advanced scouting. The system, which is accessible through a simple, touch-screen monitor, enables players, coaches and scouts to easily locate and view different images. The new video system caused an exponential jump in storage requirements and quickly overtaxed the team's existing data protection foundation.

According to Whitney Kuszmaul, network manager for the Cleveland Indians, "hit or miss" backups required excessive handholding while concern about keeping up with escalating storage demands intensified.  To ensure greater availability of data storage that had surged to 9 TBs and was growing by at least 1 TB each year, the Indians sought the assistance of Chi Corp., a Cleveland-based networking storage specialist, to replace a 20-tape Dell library with Overland's complementary disk- and tape-based backup and recovery solutions.

The team has created two disk LUNs on the REO 9000 for multiple streaming of business-critical backup data, which then is retained online for 21 days. This data, along with monthly full and weekly video backups, is archived on the NEO 4000 for 60 days before offloading for long-term retention. "Our Overland REO/NEO combination has enabled the Cleveland Indians to backup two-thirds more data in half the time while reducing our daily administrative overhead from 45 minutes to nearly nothing," explains Kuszmaul.  "In the past, restoring a video clip could take up to 75 minutes but now it's nearly instantaneous."

Initially populated with 3 TBs, the REO is being expanded to 9 TBs with room to grow to 44 TBs of raw capacity.  Meanwhile, the Indians are expanding their NEO library to safeguard online video for every game from all 32 major league teams -- totaling some 2,600 games for the 2007 season.

The Indians also are testing Overland's new high-capacity, cost-effective ARCvault 48 tape library to protect video at a state-of-the-art spring training facility currently under construction in Arizona.  Additionally, the team is evaluating Overland's ULTAMUS RAID storage array for holding up to five years of online video for expedited access.  Plans also are underway to increase the team's SAN storage to accommodate up to 21 TBs through the 2008 baseball season.

With a substantial amount of video now readily accessible, the Cleveland Indians can easily integrate valuable batting and pitching performance data into training regimens.  Meanwhile, scouts no longer have to travel extensively to follow a particular player's progress.  "Overland's highly flexible and scalable REO and NEO have produced big savings right out of the box by enabling players, coaches and scouts to easily find the data they need to enhance their jobs," says John Thome, Jr., vice president of Chi Corp. "The Indians have already determined their next data protection purchase will be an Overland product."

In addition to helping the Indians take their game to the next level, Overland provides a "future proof" solution that can meet their ever-increasing backup and recovery requirements.  "The Cleveland Indians' REO/NEO implementation is an excellent example of Overland's expansion-on-demand capabilities, which can easily accommodate their projected addition of 2 TBs in video backup alone each year," says Michael Kerman, vice president and chief strategy officer for Overland Storage.  "With our highly flexible and scalable solutions, the Indians can continue to embrace the latest video and other technologies without worrying about protecting massive amounts of storage."

About Overland Storage

Now in its 26th year, Overland Storage is a market leader and innovative provider of simply protected storage solutions -- smart data protection appliances and software modules designed to work together, affordably, to ensure that information is automatically safe, readily available and always there.  Overland's award-winning data protection solutions include the ULTAMUS(TM) RAID SERIES of affordable, high-capacity storage; REO SERIES(R) of disk-based backup, recovery and VTL appliances; and the NEO SERIES(R) and ARCvault(TM) SERIES tape automation solutions.  Overland sells its products through leading OEMs, commercial distributors, storage integrators and value-added resellers.  For more information, visit Overland's web site at http://www.overlandstorage.com/.

Except for the factual statements made herein, the information contained in this news release consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict.  Words and expressions reflecting optimism and satisfaction with current prospects, as well as words such as "believe," "intends," "estimates," expects," "projects," "plans," "anticipates" and variations thereof, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward looking.  Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and the company's actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements.  Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks and uncertainties associated with the company's acquisition of Zetta Systems, Inc., including possible integration difficulties and successful execution of the business plan related to the acquisition; possible delays in new product introductions and shipments by the company including the new ULTAMUS and ARCvault lines, including versions subject to the company's new OEM contracts; possible delays in enhancements to the company's REO line; market acceptance of the company's new product offerings; the timing and market acceptance of new product introductions by competitors; the speed at which HP transitions from the products it currently buys from the company to its next-generation products to be purchased from another vendor; delays, unbudgeted expenses, inefficiencies and production problems that may result from the transition of manufacturing to Sanmina-SCI; worldwide information technology spending levels; unexpected shortages of critical components; rescheduling or cancellation of customer orders; loss of a major customer; the timing and amount of licensing royalties; general competition and price pressures in the marketplace; the company's ability to control costs and expenses; and general economic conditions.  Reference is also made to other factors set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis" and other sections of the company's Form 10-K currently on file with the SEC.  These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and the company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Overland, Overland Storage, ARCvault SERIES, ULTAMUS SERIES, REO SERIES, NEO SERIES and PROTECTION OS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Overland Storage, Inc. 

DATASOURCE: Overland Storage, Inc.



CONTACT:  Sue Hetzel of HetzelMeade Communications, [phone],

, for Overland Storage, Inc.



Web site:  http://www.overlandstorage.com/ 

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