The rapid increase in demand for information bandwidth and the increasing value of data living on the Internet has created a growing dependence on storage for access to information anytime, anywhere. This, coupled with the short supply of IT professionals, has made it imperative for large data centers and major enterprise companies to seek innovative new scalable technologies for their burgeoning data storage needs. IDC, for example, predicts the network attached storage market will grow to $8.4 billion by 2004. Panasas has developed a technology to help answer those needs and extend the functionality of existing storage products.

Panasas, with strong ties to Carnegie Mellon University, is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa. In addition to serving as its corporate headquarters, the Pittsburgh facility hosts an engineering center focused on developing large-scale storage system software. Panasas also recently opened a second engineering center in Silicon Valley. The Redwood City, Calif., location will also house sales and customer support centers. More information on development positions can be found on http://www.panasas.com/index.html.

"MDV looks for exceptional individuals and teams who develop pioneering technologies that we can help grow into strong, billion dollar companies," said Sheridan. "Panasas not only answers today's demand for more bandwidth and distributed storage, but we believe their technology provides a uniquely creative solution that will be fundamental to the next generation of storage infrastructure."

Leading the development efforts is Panasas co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and President and former professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Garth Gibson, who earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Gibson's ground-breaking work on Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), first published in 1988, now provides the organizing principles for all reliable networked attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SAN) and direct-attached storage products. A recipient of the IEEE Reynold B. Johnson award for outstanding contributions to the field of information storage, Gibson has led both government and industry sponsored research on reliable, high-performance, and more manageable file systems and storage systems. He's also one of eight technologists elected by the membership of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) to its Technical Council.

"We're particularly pleased to be working with Mohr, Davidow Ventures," Gibson said. "MDV has an outstanding record in helping to develop and support technological innovation — especially networking infrastructure. We believe MDV will provide valuable direction and insight as we advance our technology and bring it to market."

MDV has deep expertise in networking and Internet infrastructure, and has focused considerable resources and investments in those areas, funding a number of successful companies like ONI Systems, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., and Critical Path.

About Mohr, Davidow Ventures

Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV) has built a reputation among entrepreneurs as a partner by taking a hands-on approach to investments and working skillfully to architect and build successful companies. MDV possesses an extended team of experts, including the firm's partners and an active network of seasoned entrepreneurs. Together, they focus on early-stage investments while bringing years of real-world experience to accelerate each companys' time to market and optimize its long-term success. Companies funded by MDV include Accrue Software, Agile Software, Brocade, Broadbase, ChannelPoint, Critical Path, Numerical Technologies, ONI Systems, Onvia.com, Rambus, Shutterfly and Viant. Founded in 1983, MDV has its offices on Sand Hill Road, in Menlo Park, Calif., in Seattle and in McLean, Va. For more information, visit www.mdv.com