Korean Electronics Manufacturer Enhances Global Competitiveness with U

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    BROOMFIELD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2005--To address data requirements 15 times greater than its previous solution could handle, Korea-based LG Electronics looked to McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT), a leading provider of storage networking solutions, to deploy a highly available, consolidated SAN. McDATA's Intrepid(R) Directors and SANavigator(R) SAN Management software provided for the enterprise resource planning infrastructure upgrades and the scalability needs of its ERP data and applications. Among the benefits, the company was able to increase its ability to compete while strengthening its cooperation with domestic and foreign partners.
    In 2004, LG Electronics, a Korean manufacturer of electronic appliances, telecommunication, home, display and multimedia devices, posted USD $23 billion in earnings, manufacturing electronics globally through 76 branches. Said Mun-seob Song, manager of LG Electronics IT Infrastructure Group: "We needed to standardize, upgrade and integrate systems to provide visibility enterprise-wide. Not only did we fulfill these requirements but we also improved management, reducing network administration (in hours) by 30 percent."
    LG Electronics' IT managers upgraded the company's Oracle ERP application and consolidated the network using McDATA Intrepid directors, also integrating finance, personnel, marketing and service systems into a single database. The company completed its SAN consolidation of departmental systems into an integrated, enterprise network in less than six months. McDATA's Intrepid directors switch traffic between a Lightning disk array, used exclusively for ERP applications, and almost 90 heterogeneous servers. SANavigator enables IT managers to handle the 30TB increase in data and the company is positioned to address data and network growth for years to come.
    While high benchmark results in the laboratory are an important consideration, what matters most to IT managers at LG Electronics is the real-world performance of their installed network. This is particularly true based on the uptime requirements for the company's Oracle ERP application. Speaking to this issue, Mun-seob added: "No errors have occurred since we introduced McDATA's solution. That indicates excellent stability to us."
    "Customers worldwide trust McDATA to assist them in optimizing their data infrastructure and to unleash the power of their data," said Wayne Morris, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, McDATA. "Ultimately, McDATA helps customers implement a Global Enterprise Data Center, where they have immediate, secure access to their business-critical information at all times."

    About McDATA (www.mcdata.com)

    McDATA (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT) is the only data infrastructure solutions provider that can deliver a Global Enterprise Data Center -- a globally connected, centrally managed and highly optimized data network. With more than 20 years of storage networking experience, McDATA's comprehensive product portfolio enables customers around the world to optimize their storage network environment and access information anytime, anywhere. 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: Jil Backstrom, 720-558-4774 press.release@mcdata.com or Investors: Renee Lyall, 720-558-4629 renee.lyall@mcdata.com

KEYWORD: COLORADO SOUTH KOREA INTERNATIONAL ASIA PACIFIC Technology_IT INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING SOURCE: McDATA Corporation

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