Patent covers technologies to manage data across heterogeneous storage environments while enabling deterministic performance optimization.

Redondo Beach, California, September 24, 2005 - ORtera Inc. today announced that the Company has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office on a patent application relating to context-sensitive storage management technology that enables management and performance optimization across heterogeneous storage hardware and software environments. This revolutionary approach to storage optimization will affect the industry's approach to design and configuration from small enterprise servers to major storage grids.

ORtera's Vice Chairman and Chief Scientist, Dave Fisk developed the technology described in the patent. ORtera has additional patents pending for related technologies.

Rob Gaddis, Chairman and CEO, said, "This patent, when issued, will be a primary component of our intellectual property rights in storage management software and configuration, with valuable applications to the highest-performance grid-storage designs of the future. Aspects of this technology are employed in ORtera's software applications currently available to the public. Other important aspects of this IP are employed in ORtera APIs, which will soon greatly expand the performance-optimization capabilities offered within storage management application offerings of ORtera's strategic partners."

Information on ORtera's storage-performance optimization software applications, targeted to IT Specialists, vendors, VARs, and IT consultants, is available on ORtera's website http://www.ortera.com/.