Global Bank Relies on McDATA for Disaster Recovery / Business Continui

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    BROOMFIELD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2005--Netherlands-based Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG), a specialized bank providing financial services to the government sector, has consolidated its storage assets, reduced data backup windows by up to 60 percent and met the government's disaster recovery requirements using McDATA Corporation's (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT), the leading provider of storage networking solutions, Intrepid(R) Directors and Eclipse(TM) SAN Routers for fast, reliable backup.
    "BNG has EUR 83.9 billion total assets available to make investments. We provide large-scale services to the government sector and affiliated institutions, such as public utilities, environment, national housing, healthcare and education. We needed a solution that not only met government regulations and our own business requirements, but one that was secure, flexible and centrally managed. McDATA fit the bill perfectly, providing the availability, flexibility and data replication capabilities, and helped BNG optimize value and high return on investment," said Fred Apon, infrastructure specialist at BNG. "The McDATA solution helped us to meet our disaster recovery obligations while saving valuable time and money."
    By implementing McDATA's directors and Eclipse SAN routers in a tiered architecture, BNG is able to protect data over long distances while achieving ultra high availability, optimizing company investment in its servers, simplifying storage management and reducing data back-up times by 30 to 60 percent. In addition, the bank is using McDATA's Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) to centrally manage the SAN.
    As with many customers who choose McDATA solutions, BNG has seen many benefits, such as reduced backup times for its money transfer banking applications that were beginning to exceed prescribed windows. McDATA Eclipse SAN routers link Hitachi 9970V subsystems over distance, and with Hitachi TrueCopy replication software, the data is protected between two fabrics. Operating through a single console that administers and configures to the storage network via McDATA Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM), the newly implemented SAN allows the same number of employees to manage 100 percent more data than before.
    "McDATA is trusted by all of the top ten global banks, helping them protect data, facilitate SAN management and optimize available resources. McDATA's solution suite enables customers to simplify their SAN environment and move towards a unified, global enterprise data center," said Wayne Morris, senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

    About McDATA (www.mcdata.com)

    McDATA (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT) is the only vendor today uniquely positioned to deliver a unified information infrastructure -- key to enabling a world where digital data is instantly transformed into useful information, accessed -- anytime, anywhere. With more than 20 years of storage networking experience, McDATA's comprehensive product portfolio enables partners and customers around the world to reduce the total cost of storage management today and be ready to adapt to the real-time information demands of tomorrow. Trusted in the world's largest data centers, McDATA connects more than two-thirds of all the world's networked data, powering the latest e-business applications, customer databases, financial traffic and other mission-critical data.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains statements about expected future events that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the terms "believes," "belief," "expects," "plans," "objectives," "estimates," "anticipates," "intends," "targets," or the like to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that could cause actual results to differ and vary materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, our relationships with EMC, IBM and HDS and the level of their orders, aggressive price competition by numerous other SAN and IP switch suppliers, OEM qualification of our new products, manufacturing constraints and other risk factors that are disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by us should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by us. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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CONTACT: McDATA Corporation Media: Kathleen Sullivan, 720-558-4435 720-480-5501 (cell) press.release@mcdata.com or Investors: Renee Lyall, 720-558-4629 renee.lyall@mcdata.com

KEYWORD: COLORADO NETHERLANDS INTERNATIONAL ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE Technology_IT INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKING SOURCE: McDATA Corporation

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