Dot Hill Now Offers Green, 1 TB SATA Drives for Use in RAID Storage Systems

Use of WD GreenPower drives can result in measurable annual energy costs savings

CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 10 -- Dot Hill Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:HILL) , a world-class provider of entry-level and midrange storage innovations for OEMs and system integrators (SIs), today announced it is now offering WD(R) RE2-GP 1 TB serial ATA (SATA) hard drives featuring Western Digital's GreenPower(TM) technology across its entry-level line of RAID storage systems based on the Dot Hill Rapid Evolution (R/Evolution) Architecture.

The WD RE2-GP drives use on average 4 to 5 watts less than similar-size and format 7200 RPM drives from other suppliers resulting in an annual saving of $10 per year, per disk drive. Additionally because the WD RE2-GP 1 TB SATA hard drives operate at an average of 10C less than 7200RPM drives they have a lower failure rate. Combined, this drive can help any size of data center reduce annual energy costs and total cost of ownership.

The drive's power efficiency is thanks to a number of key technologies, including WD's IntelliPower(TM), which balances spin speed, transfer rate, and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. This also uses less current during start up, which reduces the amount of current needed, and allows more drives to spin up simultaneously, resulting in faster system readiness. IntelliSeek optimizes seek-speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. Active Power Management monitors a drive's workload and automatically invokes idle mode whenever possible to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Drive recovery time from idle mode is less than one second.

The move to offer the WD RE2-GP, power-efficient drives is the latest in a series of initiatives undertaken by Dot Hill to help lower power consumption and improve efficiencies in the data center. In Q3 2008, the company introduced DC power support, enabling users to leverage DC power for improved energy efficiency and cost savings.

"We're taking an active role in IT center management. Last quarter we introduced support for DC power, this quarter we've added power-efficient drives. Every data center should be looking at energy saving technologies, regardless of size. These new offerings, multiplied across hundreds of drives, results in measurable savings," said Cooper Cowart, Dot Hill's vice president of marketing. "Offering these green drives is yet another example of our interest in providing our OEM customers with intelligent RAID storage solutions that unifies performance with energy efficiency and lowers total cost of ownership.

"We have been working closely with industry-leading storage system providers such as Dot Hill to deliver greener storage solutions into the data center," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of enterprise storage solutions for WD. "Since our WD RE2-GP 1 TB drives run cooler than other alternatives, they not only save money in energy costs, but generate less heat, resulting in greater reliability."

About Dot Hill

Delivering innovative technology and global support, Dot Hill empowers the OEM community to bring unique storage solutions to market, quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Offering high performance and industry-leading uptime, Dot Hill's RAID technology is the foundation for best-in-class storage solutions offering enterprise-class security, availability and data protection. The company's products are in use today by the world's leading service and equipment providers, common carriers, advanced technology and telecommunications companies as well as government agencies. Dot Hill solutions are certified to meet rigorous industry standards and military specifications, as well as RoHS and WEEE international environmental standards. Headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., Dot Hill has offices and/or representatives in China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, visit us at http://www.dothill.com/.

Certain statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical fact are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include statements regarding: the performance and continued availability of Western Digital's RE2-GP 1 TB SATA hard drives featuring GreenPower(TM); any increase in orders for Dot Hill's products due to its compatibility with the drives; and the actual energy savings experienced by Dot Hill customers who use the drives. The risks that contribute to the uncertain nature of the forward-looking statements include: changing customer preferences in the open systems computing market; and unforeseen supply, technological, intellectual property or engineering issues. However, there are many other risks not listed here that may affect the future business or products of Dot Hill, as well as the forward-looking statements contained herein. To learn about such risks and uncertainties, you should read the risk factors set forth in the company's public filings with the SEC, including the Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q most recently filed by Dot Hill. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. WD, IntelliPower and GreenPower are trademarks of Western Digital.