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Exanet and Kodak Polychrome Graphics Enter Into an Agreement for the Worldwide Distribution of ExaStore(TM) Scalable Storage Cluster System Valued at $300 Million Annual Revenues

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 March 2004, 06:00 CST

NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Exanet, Inc., a developer of industry-specific, grid storage system solutions, has signed an agreement with Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) for worldwide distribution to the graphic arts market of Exanet's ExaStore(TM), the first universal, highly automated scalable storage cluster system specifically tuned for pre-media applications used by the graphic arts industry and digital media markets, representing a $300 million potential annual revenue opportunity.

"KPG's distribution of our systems is an important step in our strategy to accelerate the worldwide introduction of ExaStore to the graphic arts industry," said Dr. Giora Yaron, Chairman and CEO of Exanet, Inc. "There is an urgent need for ExaStore throughout the industry. Printers and pre-media companies face a tremendous explosion of digital content demands on their operations, putting them under pressure to expand or replace their existing storage systems. There are severe cost-of-ownership issues as they try to cope with the need to increase storage capacity and bandwidth without downtime. In the ExaStore system, which runs on industry-standard hardware units, they now have a solution that improves productivity and reduces cost of ownership."

"Printers and pre-media companies want to focus on growing their businesses and capturing opportunities for new revenues," noted Jeff Jacobson, Chief Executive Officer of KPG. "In today's digital world, data storage is at the core of our customer's business and critical to their growth. The ExaStore system is the next wave of information technology that helps improve efficiency, allowing customers to focus their attention on growth. This strategic agreement allows KPG to grow our solution business."

Melvin A. Ettinger, President of Exanet's Digital Media Division, observed, "This strategic agreement represents a $300 million potential annual revenue opportunity. With our introduction of the first digital storage products tuned specifically for the graphic arts industry, Exanet serves a very significant market need. KPG's worldwide presence will accelerate the penetration of our products into every sector of the industry, enabling more customers to take advantage of the cost and performance benefits provided by Exanet's innovative technology and products."

The ExaStore system provides easy file sharing across a wide range of system platforms including Apple, Windows, Unix, and Linux. Installed on industry-standard, off-the-shelf servers, RAIDs, and switches, ExaStore software enables printers and prepress shops to integrate the capabilities of disparate storage pools into a complete, low-cost system that provides high-performance, is easy to manage, and allows reliable, load-balanced access to media files. ExaStore can seamlessly scale to virtually any storage capacity or bandwidth level.

Hundreds of engineering man-years were invested in the development of ExaStore. The company currently has more than 20 patents pending. ExaStore easily integrates with all leading digital media applications including software programs from Adobe, Xinet, Dalim, Quark, Legato, and many others.

ExaStore is available in a wide range of configurations scaling from one terabyte to hundreds of terabytes of capacity and from hundreds of megabytes per second throughput to hundreds of gigabytes per second of throughput. Companies already benefiting worldwide from Exanet storage systems include printers, publishers, pre-media companies, advertising agencies, post-production video centers, and numerous companies managing large amounts of digital content.

About Kodak Polychrome Graphics

Kodak Polychrome Graphics provides one of the broadest portfolios of digital, conventional and business solutions available in the graphic arts industry today. Products and services include a wide range of computer-to-plate and conventional lithographic plate products, digital halftone, inkjet, and analog proofing products, digital printing applications, color workflow tools, consulting services and Kodak branded graphic arts films. With headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, KPG serves customers around the globe with regional offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Additional information regarding Kodak Polychrome Graphics may be found on the company's website: http://www.kpgraphics.com/.

About Exanet

Founded in 2000, Exanet, Inc. is a world-wide developer of industry-specific, grid storage system solutions. The company has offices in New York, Israel, Germany, UK and Japan. More information about Exanet, Inc. and its innovative advanced, automated scalable storage cluster system for graphic arts and pre-media applications are available on the company's website at http://www.exanet.com/.

ExaStore is a trademark of Exanet, Inc. Kodak is a trademark of Eastman Kodak Company. All trademarks and registered trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACTS:

Exanet, Inc.

Mel Ettinger, 917-210-8290 or 515-241-0638 (cell), mel@exanet.com

Ruder Finn

Josh Shuman, 212-593-5886, shumanj@ruderfinn.com

Exanet, Inc.

CONTACT: Mel Ettinger of Exanet, Inc., +1-917-210-8290,cell, +1-515-241-0638, mel@exanet.com; or Josh Shuman of Ruder Finn,+1-212-593-5886, shumanj@ruderfinn.com, for Exanet

Web site: http://www.kpgraphics.com/http://www.exanet.com/

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