FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STORAGEsearch Publisher Commemorates 11 Years in IT Publishing

Hampshire, UK - December 2, 2002 - this month ACSL, publisher of STORAGEsearch.com commemorates 11 years of IT directory publishing.

ACSL's first publication was called the "SBus Product Directory" and was aimed at buyers in the Sun Microsystems market. By the time it switched to the web in 1996, the paper edition weighed several pounds and ACSL changed its name to the "SPARC Product Directory" to reflect the fact that other busses, including PCI were also being used in SPARC systems.

Although the Sun market has shrunk from its revenue peak at the height of the dotcom boom, the installed base has continued to grow and the readership of the SPARC Product Directory has also grown as other publishers have dropped out of the market. It's now the longest surviving Sun focused publication. "There will always be a need for an independent guide to 3rd party SPARC compatible hardware and suppliers" comments publisher Zsolt Kerekes. "The SPARC Directory is the showcase where manufacturers of all sizes have been able to get an airing for their products, even if they only made a single add-in card for SPARC systems."

ACSL's flagship publication today, is STORAGEsearch.com, the mouse site, which was first launched in the summer of 1998. Within two years it had overtaken the SPARC Directory readership, and today has a readership which is more than twice as large.

"We were very lucky in our timing for the mouse site" says Kerekes. "The importance of enterprise storage as a independent theme within the computer marker was just starting to emerge when we launched it. I knew that there would soon be dozens of other publishers getting into the storage portal market, but we had the advantage of being one of the first, and also our experience from our Sun portal helped prioritise what was important to readers. Our Byte family mouse characters also helped to provide a unique visual identity for the site which is important now that there are literally hundreds of me-too storage publications."

Another thing which makes ACSL's publications different from many later web arrivals is that the company adheres to the original principles of web publishing. Viewing is free. There are no log-in's required to read articles. And ACSL does not compile or supply email lists for so called "opt-in" SPAM. Kerekes concludes "Our readers, which include many of the key players and buyers in the storage and Sun markets can surf safely in the knowledge that we won't be cluttering up their intrays. We've proven that a company which is 100% web based can be profitable and survive even in the toughest market conditions." ...ACSL profile, ...SPARC Product Directory, ...STORAGEsearch