Luminex Doubling Channel Gateway Revenues From 2009 to 2010

LUMINEX Software, Inc. announced that mainframe datacenters are continuing their migration to tapeless storage systems and turning to LUMINEX’s Channel Gateways as the solution to reduce or eliminate physical tape in their datacenter operations.

LUMINEX is also announcing that 2010 was the best year in its history, more than doubling its Channel Gateway revenues from 2009. More mainframe customers are replacing existing legacy tape libraries and virtual tape systems with LUMINEX’s Channel Gateway mainframe virtual tape and deduplication storage systems.

LUMINEX attributes its growing success to providing customers the opportunities to leverage the value propositions of deduplication storage and WAN-optimized remote replication. Mainframe customers improve daily tape operations, reduce cost and floor space, eliminate the risks associated with shipping, storing and handling cumbersome physical tapes, and improve RPO and RTO for more efficient disaster recovery.

Going tapeless has brought benefits for both large and small mainframe datacenters, ranging from terabytes to petabytes of tape data.

In Europe and Africa, Shoden Data Systems is a focused integrator of data center storage solutions. "In 2010, we installed LUMINEX Channel Gateway products in a number of recognized British brands, as well as other organizations throughout Europe," states John Taffinder, CEO of Shoden UK. "LUMINEX clearly has the best mainframe virtual tape products in the industry and the opportunity to help organizations replace aging mainframe tape infrastructures and optimize their environments is significant for us both in the UK and throughout Europe. We are pleased to be the preferred vendor and integrator for LUMINEX throughout the EMEA region."

In Japan, Kanematsu Electronics Ltd. (KEL) is a vendor of datacenter solutions and is a longtime partner of LUMINEX. "Our EG-4500 mainframe virtual tape solution, based upon LUMINEX’s Channel Gateway technology, continues to be a leading product in Japan," stated said Mr. Yasuhiro Kikukawa, general executive officer and general manager, Business Development Division of KEL. "In Japan, many of the most demanding datacenters in the world rely on LUMINEX Channel Gateways for mission critical operations. The number of customers in Japan continued to grow in 2010 and we are excited to continue partnering with LUMINEX to help more mainframe datacenters modernize their mainframe tape operations."

In the United States, LUMINEX estimates that they were responsible for the vast majority of Tape-to-Tapeless conversions for mainframe enterprises. "Our 2010 results clearly showed the growing acceptance of LUMINEX’s virtual tape solutions by the mainframe marketplace," said Arthur Tolsma, CEO of LUMINEX. "We directly installed, migrated and put into production many petabytes of mainframe data storage, across a wide range of geographies, industries, and application environments. As a result, our customers are realizing significant operational benefits, including up to 95% reduction in data storage resulting from deduplication."