Sphere 3D's V3 Hyper-Converged Appliance Shows Leading Linear Scalability and Desktop Workload Performance

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 17, 2015) - Sphere 3D Corporation (NASDAQ: ANY), a virtualization and data management solutions provider, today announced high-performance test results of virtual desktop workloads running on its V3 hyper-converged appliances.

Utilizing industry-standard Login VSI (www.loginvsi.com) software, Sphere 3D's V3 appliances demonstrated industry-leading performance of virtualized desktop workloads, compared to publicly-released performance reports from other hyper-converged and traditional solutions providers. Login VSI is the industry standard load testing solution for centralized virtualized desktop environments. Sphere 3D has published a new tech brief that describes "How the V3 Hyper-converged Appliance Delivers Industry-Leading Performance for the Best Desktop Experience" available at http://ow.ly/KpLWp.

Sphere 3D used Login VSI v4.1 workloads to measure the response times of 100 simulated desktop users performing various workloads, including the most demanding workloads typical of "power workers" such as those that use many graphics-intensive applications. Sphere 3D's results showed consistent sub-second response times across all workloads.

In addition to testing single V3 appliances, Sphere 3D also demonstrated the linear performance scaling and benefits of its distributed hyper-converged architecture. As their virtual desktop requirements grow and scale, the V3 distributed architecture allows customers to simply add a new V3 appliance, of any size, without sacrificing consistent performance. For example, to simulate the performance of 250 power users' desktop workloads, two V3 V100 appliances and a V3 V50 appliance were used. The testing concluded that V3 appliances maintain the same sub-second average response times for all 250 users, regardless of the appliance they were running on. Published test results from competing hyper-converged or traditional solutions built on clustered files systems showed degradation while scaling and a slowdown in average response times as the number of desktops increased. In comparison, V3 customers will continue to get the same consistent response time, whether adding 50 virtual desktops or a few thousand.

"Virtualizing physical desktops offers tremendous OPEX and CAPEX savings, however the lack of consistent performance and the complexity of traditional solutions has hindered the adoption of VDI by IT administrators," said Nilesh Patel, vice president of Product Management and Marketing at Sphere3D. "With guaranteed consistent performance and drop-in appliance simplicity, customers using V3 hyper-converged appliances have shaved off months from their VDI projects while enjoying substantial TCO savings and a compelling ROI. Login VSI provided us an objective way to measure performance and compare our results against a variety of other competing solutions. Our test results demonstrate what our customers consistently tell us -- V3 delivers the best end user experience."

With its distributed hyper-converged architecture, V3 can be deployed closer to the end user and offers the lowest latency by executing workloads local to the end user's IT infrastructure. Sphere 3D's V3 appliances are designed to simply drop-in and integrate into a customer's existing IT environment to avoid unnecessary "rip and replacement" of their infrastructure equipment. Regardless of the number of virtual desktops, or locations of appliances, V3 enables centralized pool management across the distributed infrastructure.

All of Sphere 3D's V3 appliances integrate compute, storage and network interface, as well as the required hypervisor infrastructure, and are managed by Sphere 3D's Desktop Cloud Orchestrator™ (DCO) management software. DCO software dramatically simplifies set-up, maintenance and failover of desktop pools, making it possible for desktop administrators to remain in control of their desktops and manage infrastructures locally or in remote locations, all without specialized virtualization certifications. DCO's software architecture enables V3 appliances to be a single turnkey workload-optimized solution that delivers high-availability failover architecture, eliminates performance bottlenecks and installation problems, and provides predictable cost for various workloads.

About Sphere 3D
Sphere 3D Corporation (NASDAQ: ANY) is a virtualization technology and data management solutions provider with a portfolio of workload-optimized, purpose-built solutions that address the complete IT workspace delivery and management including the data lifecycle continuum from active data to data at rest. Dedicated to continue to lead through innovation, Sphere 3D enables the integration of virtual applications, virtual desktops, and storage into workflow, and allows organizations to deploy a combination of public, private or hybrid cloud strategies. Sphere 3D's Glassware 2.0® platform delivers virtualization of some of the most demanding applications in the marketplace today, making it easy to move applications from a physical PC or workstation to a virtual environment. Sphere 3D's V3 hyper-converged infrastructure solutions include one of the industry's first purpose-built appliances for virtual workspace workloads and the Desktop Cloud Orchestrator™ management software for VDI. Overland Storage and Tandberg Data, wholly-owned subsidiaries of Sphere 3D, provide an integrated range of technologies and services for primary, nearline, offline, and archival data storage that make it easy and cost-effective to manage different tiers of information over the data lifecycle. For more information, visit www.sphere3d.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, unforeseen changes in the course of Sphere 3D's business or the business of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, including, without limitation, Overland Storage and Tandberg Data; any increase in Sphere 3D's cash needs; possible actions by customers, suppliers, competitors or regulatory authorities; and other risks detailed from time to time in Sphere 3D's periodic reports contained in our Annual Information Form and other filings with Canadian securities regulators (www.sedar.com) and in prior periodic reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov), and risks detailed in the Form F-4/A relating to Sphere 3D's merger with Overland Storage filed with the SEC. Sphere 3D undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.