STEC Stec, Inc. (MM)

STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, and PogoStorage, the leading open source systems integrator, today announced an alliance whereby Pogo Storage will now feature STEC's highly reliable, high-speed ZeusRAM® and ZeusIOPS® SSDs in its StorageDirector Z-Series family of unified storage solutions. The two companies are showcasing the solution August 26 to 29 at VMworld 2012, booth #2113, in San Francisco.

Pogo's flagship StorageDirector Z-Series NAS and SAN products run on the NexentaStor™ ZFS platform, which unlocks enterprise-class storage capabilities such as high availability, unlimited snapshots and deduplication, with Open Storage technologies. Nexenta recently certified an all-STEC SSD-configured system, which delivers up to 5X better performance for such enterprise applications as database indexing and email exchanges, resulting in an 8X reduction in cost per user and a 4X reduction in cost per transaction.

Utilizing STEC's ZeusRAM SSD as the write log and ZeusIOPS SSD as the read-only cache within the StorageDirector Z-Series system alleviates performance bottlenecks. This accelerates read/write capabilities, which is ideal for business-critical applications, such as enterprise e-commerce, databases, online transaction processing (OLTP), cloud infrastructures and virtualization.

"With all the solid-state drive technologies on the market, our customers and resellers trust us to integrate only the most enterprise-reliable SSDs into our products," said Erik Logan, CEO of Pogo Storage. "As the first Nexenta Premier Partner, we are excited to partner with STEC to integrate their powerful Nexenta-certified STEC ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSDs into our StorageDirector Z-Series systems. These SSDs deliver the best solid-state drive platform to run NexentaStor in terms of I/O performance and I/Os per second (IOPS), which is consistent with the quality and performance our customers expect from Pogo Storage."

"Integrating STEC's ZeusIOPS SSDs into Pogo's groundbreaking StorageDirector Z-Series solution, powered by Nexenta's OpenStorage software, provides the enterprise market with a high-performance, high-availability storage solution," said Jim Ting, vice president of product marketing at STEC. "This all-SSD solution delivers incredible I/O performance at a price point not achievable using HDDs."

Product Demo at VMworld 2012

STEC and Pogo Storage will be demonstrating the StorageDirector Z Series product in the STEC booth, #2113, at VMworld 2012. Systems are immediately available for companies that wish to take advantage of the enhanced read/write capabilities of STEC ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSD system configurations within a NexentaStor storage solution.

About STEC, Inc.

STEC, Inc. is a leading global provider of enterprise-class solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and solutions tailored to meet the high-performance, high-reliability and high-endurance needs of today's data-intensive server and storage platforms. With headquarters in Santa Ana, California and locations worldwide, STEC leverages almost two decades of solid-state knowledge and experience to design, manufacture and deliver the most comprehensive line of PCIe, SAS, SATA, and embedded SSDs on the market today. In addition, STEC's EnhanceIO™ SSD Cache Software enables IT managers to cost-effectively scale server application performance. For more information, please visit www.stec-inc.com.

The STEC, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1079

About Pogo Storage

Pogo Storage, a division of Pogo Linux and the first Nexenta Premier Partner, builds trusted open storage hardware solutions backed by expert personal support. With more than 10 years of experience, Pogo helps IT departments dramatically reduce storage expenses with solutions that cost significantly less than legacy proprietary systems. Customers trust Pogo Storage to provide open storage value, robust enterprise feature-sets, professional services, and expert support, all at a greatly-reduced price point. For more information about Pogo Storage, please visit www.pogostorage.com or call 1 (888) 828-POGO (7646).

STEC, the STEC logo, ZeusRAM, ZeusIOPS and EnhanceIO are either registered trademarks or trademarks of STEC, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks or brand names referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those statements concerning the relationship and collaboration between STEC and Pogo Storage; customer adoption and utilization of STEC's and Pogo Storage's technologies and solutions; the benefits, capabilities, performance, and cost savings of STEC's ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSD solutions; the benefits from the incorporation of STEC's ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSDs across Pogo Storage's StorageDirector Z-Series NAS and SAN products; the benefits from the incorporation of STEC's ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSDs running on the NexentaStor™ ZFS platform; and the evolving enterprise storage and server markets. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements are detailed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, made from time to time by STEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. The information contained in this press release is a statement of STEC's present intentions, beliefs or expectations. STEC may change its intentions, beliefs or expectations, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, from STEC's assumptions and otherwise. STEC undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date thereof, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

CONTACT: Jerry Steach
         Public Relations
         STEC, Inc. 
         (415) 222-9996
         jsteach@stec-inc.com 

         Lindsey Jesch
         Pogo Storage
         (425) 898-2229
         lindsey.j@pogostorage.com