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Overland Storage Introduces New Version of Storage Resource Manager with Active SRM Capabilities

January 27, 2003

Updated Heterogeneous SRM 3 Software Enables IT Professionals to Complete Storage Projects on Time and Under Budget

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overland Storage, Inc. (Nasdaq: OVRL), a leading provider of storage solutions, today announced that Overland's Storage Resource Manager (SRM) 3 is now available, featuring new capabilities to quickly assess and manage existing data storage, eliminate unnecessary storage and increase IT efficiency. With Overland SRM 3, IT professionals can complete IT projects such as SAN/NAS planning, disaster recovery implementations, server consolidations, and shortening backup windows on time and under budget.

Overland SRM 3, a fully open storage resource management solution, is an IT professional's first step to making decisions and setting policies about what data to keep, what to archive, what to move and what to prevent from putting on the system in the first place. Overland's product provides intelligent actions for all major operating systems while allowing for database and mailbox scans and detailed reports.

"We believe that Overland SRM 3 provides all the features and functionality that the SRM market has been promising for the last year," said John Cloyd, vice president and general manager of Overland's storage management business unit. "With Overland SRM 3, our customers can easily get in front of and be proactive about controlling their storage assets. By providing an accurate picture of exactly what resides where, we're helping our customers be more effective throughout the IT organization, making ROI quickly attainable."

Features new to Overland SRM include:

-- Cross-Platform Intelligent Actions -- For all major operating systems

        including Windows NT/2000, Novell NetWare, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM
        AIX, and Red Hat Linux, Overland SRM 3 gives organizations the ability
        to analyze storage trends, optimize storage resources, rapidly
        identify storage problems, and take corrective action before issues
        arise. Previous agents would run file scans in these operating
        systems, but not perform intelligent actions.

    --  Application Agents -- Overland SRM 3 includes agents for Oracle,
        Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Exchange that provide information
        about capacity used and allows the IT professional to set thresholds
        that warn you before you run out of disk space for mission critical
        applications.

    --  Web Management Console -- The user-definable Dashboard Web page gives
        administrators a useful overview of the enterprise, offering easy to
        understand real-time snapshots of such things as resources, wizards,
        settings, running policies, and scheduled agents.

    --  Simplified Installation and Configuration -- Setting the bar for
        enterprise usability, Overland SRM 3 installs in less than one hour
        and is powered by a battery of new wizards. As a result, organizations
        can quickly implement smarter policies, detect problems and reclaim
        unused resources for immediate return on investment.

    --  External Scripts -- Overland SRM 3 gives the administrator fine-
        grained controls to automatically run external scripts, move files to
        less expensive storage alternatives, or launch various housekeeping
        tasks.

    --  Increased Security -- Logon security is provided via Secure Socket
        Layer (SSL) encryption, and all communications between the user and
        the console are encrypted. Secure encrypted links are established
        between the Overland SRM primary server and all managed resources
        using SSL over TCP.

"We selected Overland SRM 3 for its superior features and unsurpassed ease in managing storage resources," said Peter Lang, systems engineer for Government Employee Hospital Association, the third largest national health plan serving federal employees, retirees and their dependents. "Once we installed the product, we realized an immediate ROI."

"Overland's customers required SRM solutions, which did more than just report information about the storage assets, but actually took action based on the information gathered," said Nancy Marrone, senior analyst for Enterprise Storage Group. "The SRM 3 product announced today includes intelligent actions, which enable a level of automation intended to help customers streamline storage processes. We expect these features to greatly enhance the value of SRM solutions to the end user."

Pricing and Availability

Overland SRM 3 is available now through Overland's extensive network of resellers. It costs $20,000 per terabyte and can be purchased in increments of 100 gigabytes. Overland Application Agents for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Exchange are sold separately for $10,000. Users activate Overland SRM via an electronic license key that allows them to regularly expand the product's capabilities to keep pace with growth. Annual maintenance costs 18 percent of the total system price.

About Overland Storage

Overland Storage, Inc. (Nasdaq: OVRL) is a leading global supplier of innovative hardware and software storage solutions for mid-range computer networks. The company's reputation for delivering high availability products, including its award-winning automated storage libraries and the industry's first family of fully open storage management software solutions, sets the standard for intelligent, automated and scalable storage. Overland sells its products worldwide through leading OEMs, commercial distributors, storage integrators and value-added resellers. For more information, visit Overland's Web site at www.overlandstorage.com.

Except for the factual statements made herein, the information contained in this news release consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Words and expressions reflecting optimism and satisfaction with current prospects, as well as words such as "believe," "intends," "expects," "plans," "anticipates" and variations thereof, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward looking. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and the company's actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include continuing transitional issues at the Company's major OEM customer, technology spending levels, unexpected shortages of critical components, rescheduling or cancellation of customer orders, loss of a major customer, the timing and market acceptance of new product introductions by the company, including the launch of the company's new software products, its competitors or its licensees, the timing and amount of licensing royalties, general competition and price pressures in the marketplace, the company's ability to control costs and expenses and economic conditions. Reference is also made to other factors set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis" and other sections of the company's Form 10-K for the most recently completed fiscal year. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release. SOURCE Overland Storage, Inc.

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/CONTACT: Investor Relations, Cynthia A. Bond, Director of Corporate Communications of Overland Storage, Inc., +1-858-571-5555, cbond@overlandstorage.com; or Media Inquiries, Jamie Ernst of Brodeur Worldwide, +1-310-316-9335, jernst@brodeur.com, for Overland Storage, Inc./