SAN DIEGO and SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, March 5, 2001 - BakBone Software (TSE: BKB, OTC: BKBOF), a global provider of storage management software, and Nishan Systems, the world's first native IP storage solutions provider, today announced that they have entered into a "first-to-market" agreement under which the two companies will jointly market and sell their products.

The agreement was announced at the recent IP-Tape Initiative conference in San Francisco, sponsored by Spectra Logic Corporation. Nishan demonstrated its Storage over IP™ (SoIP™) capabilities at the conference, using BakBone's NetVault™ backup/restore software. This marks Nishan's first alliance with an independent software vendor (ISV) in the data backup and restore segment. BakBone and Nishan jointly exhibited and demonstrated their products at the conference.

The announcement marks a powerful pairing of two of the data storage industry's most dynamic firms. Within the past year, BakBone's products have risen to prominence, delivering a network-centric software architecture that provides powerful performance and unparalleled ease of use. During the same period, Nishan Systems has taken a leading role in the development of protocols that enable Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage.

"Nishan has quickly captured the imagination of the storage industry through its revolutionary approach to IP storage and is poised to lead a new market segment," said Tony Cerquiera, BakBone's Chief Executive Officer. "Nishan and BakBone both recognize the importance of producing network storage solutions that enable companies to handle their growing data storage requirements with the cross-platform power they need, and empower users to leverage their existing IP networks to handle that load."

"Nishan is pleased to enter this marketing alliance with BakBone Software, combining our marketing strength to deliver enterprise-class SoIP networking solutions," said Aamer Latif, president and CEO of Nishan Systems. "BakBone is a first-to-market provider of a critical SoIP-enabled application required by network managers. As our recent public interoperability demonstration verified, Nishan's SAN-aware technology can readily leverage the power of BakBone's application to enhance the ease of management for the enterprise network. BakBone Software already is at the forefront in fulfilling this emerging customer need and is well positioned in the IP storage market."

Officials from the two companies said their joint marketing and sales efforts extend through the launch of joint technology development efforts in embedded intelligence for future products. Additional future activities planned by the two companies include conducting further interoperability testing, co-developing network and product architecture solution sets, driving solution certifications, and actively cooperating throughout the sales process.

About BakBone Software, Inc.

BakBone Software™ (TSE: BKB, OTC: BKBOF) is an international storage management software company that develops and globally distributes industry-leading storage management solutions to the open systems markets, providing data protection and management solutions scalable from workgroup to enterprise that will grow with a company's needs. BakBone's core products include nearline optical and archival, as well as tape backup and restore software for a full suite of storage management solutions to the corporate data center.

BakBone's corporate headquarters is located at 10145 Pacific Heights Boulevard, San Diego, California 92121. Its stock is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and is included on the TSE 300 Composite, S&P/TSE Canadian SmallCap and TSE 200 indices. For more information on BakBone products, call 858-450-9009, e-mail sales@bakbone.com, or access BakBone's web site at www.bakbone.com.

About Nishan Systems

Nishan Systems, the world's first supplier of native IP storage solutions, builds storage networking products based on IP and Ethernet, the worldwide networking standards. Long-thought impossible, Storage over IP (SoIP™) is a broad-based revolution, led by Nishan, to use the ubiquitous Internet Protocol (IP) and Gigabit Ethernet to rapidly transfer large blocks of data between servers and storage devices. The highly reliable and manageable SoIP SAN fabric extends seamlessly from the data center to the metro area and beyond. And perhaps most significant, Nishan's SoIP products are fully compatible with the millions of LAN, MAN, and WAN routers and switches already installed and mastered by IT professionals. Nishan Systems, a full voting member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), is based in San Jose, California, and can be reached at www.NishanSystems.com, and at 408-519-3700.

Safe Harbor

BakBone Software, the BakBone logo, and NetVault are all trademarks or registered trademarks of BakBone Software, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.