McDATA's Intrepid 10000 Backbone Director and Eclipse 2640 SAN Router

McDATA's Intrepid 10000 Backbone Director and Eclipse 2640 SAN Router Now Available from IBM

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    BROOMFIELD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2005--

Customers Can Now Deploy Tiered Storage Networks for a Global Enterprise Data Center, Enabling On-Demand Access To Information
    McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA) (Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of storage networking solutions, today announced that IBM is now offering IBM(R) TotalStorage(R)-branded products based on the McDATA Intrepid 10000 Backbone Director (i10K) and Eclipse 2640 SAN Router. The products will be available within the IBM TotalStorage networked storage solution product line as the IBM TotalStorage SAN256M Director and the IBM TotalStorage SAN16M-R SAN Router. These products are intended to enable a tiered storage networking strategy, where a customer's infrastructure is matched with their tiered storage environment by performance, availability, security and cost.
    "IBM and McDATA have a long, successful history as storage networking solution providers. IBM is focused on delivering the broadest portfolio of information management solutions in the marketplace to enable access to information for our clients," said Bob Mahoney, vice president of storage networking sales, IBM. "We are delighted to further expand the industry-leading TotalStorage portfolio with the IBM TotalStorage(R) SAN256M director and IBM TotalStorage(R) SAN16M-R SAN router. Customers can continue to buy knowing that IBM offers integrated IBM TotalStorage infrastructure simplification, business continuity and information lifecycle management solutions."
    Deployed at the core, McDATA's FICON-capable Intrepid 10000 backbone director (tier 1) is key to enabling a tiered storage networking strategy for a Global Enterprise Data Center (GEDC), where information can be accessed on demand. Used in conjunction with McDATA's FICON-capable Intrepid 6000-series directors (tier 2), and McDATA's iSCSI/iFCP capable Eclipse 2640 SAN routers and Sphereon(TM) Fabric Switches (tier 3), customers can cost effectively deploy information lifecycle management and on demand resource strategies across their global enterprise.
    "Deployment of tiered storage solutions remains a key priority for enterprises. They want their primary storage partners to deliver solutions that enable more effective management of growing volumes of diverse information, boost business continuity levels across all applications, and permit them to extend the value of existing IT assets," said Richard Villars, vice president of storage systems research at IDC. "IBM's support for products like McDATA's Intrepid 10000 and Eclipse 2640 will make it possible for customers to deploy storage network infrastructures, within one data center or across a number of data centers around the world, that can keep pace with their constantly evolving technology and performance requirements."
    McDATA's i10K has the necessary requirements for the backbone of the enterprise, including patent-pending Director FlexPar(TM) technology, which maintains high levels of performance and redundancy with hardware enforced flexible partitions, secure SAN island and large fabric consolidation, intelligent 10Gb/s disaster recovery services and carrier class availability for the enterprise.
    "Our experience with McDATA's Intrepid 10000 backbone director is very positive. We highly recommend it to any enterprise customer wanting to simplify and ease SAN administration, consolidate their network footprint and potentially extend their SAN at 10Gb/s over distance -- without rip and replace of their existing infrastructure. We view the i10K truly as a new class of director for the backbone of a network with the highest level of performance, availability and security," said Jason McKnespiey of B&Q plc, European market leader and international "DIY and home improvement" retailer, and Intrepid 10000 backbone director customer.
    Utilizing McDATA's Eclipse 2640 SAN router, customers can take advantage of interoperability and scalability, un-compromised access to storage infrastructure resources, SAN autonomy and fault isolation. McDATA Eclipse SAN routers offer a broad range of highly available, heterogeneous and multi-protocol support over Fibre Channel and Internet Protocol (IP) while providing the high performance and bandwidth utilization across the enterprise.
    "Covenant Health has long viewed IBM as a strategic vendor; in fact, it was IBM that recommended we take a look at McDATA's 6000-series directors when we first built our SAN. We've been very pleased with McDATA's solid technology and the relationship we've established with our McDATA representatives, so when Covenant Health began looking to build a disaster recovery (DR) SAN infrastructure across town, we immediately went to McDATA to see what they recommended. They said their Eclipse SAN Routers are unmatched in this arena. Before making a decision, we compared McDATA's iFCP SAN routing solutions with other FCIP solutions, but in the end we found McDATA's Eclipse switches -- specifically using the iFCP technology -- to be a better technical fit for our SAN routing needs. We chose McDATA's Eclipse 2640 SAN router for its flexibility and because it would ensure us the sustained bandwidth that our DR solution would require," said Becky Phillips, senior systems analyst for Covenant Health.
    McDATA continues to demonstrate its thought leadership through its vision of tiered storage networking for the GEDC. The availability of its Intrepid 10000 backbone director and Eclipse 2640 SAN router are the first of many executions for the coming year. Customers across the globe know that McDATA and IBM deliver solid, innovative solutions that help deliver instant access to information in an on demand world.

    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 is trusted in the world's largest data centers, connecting more than two-thirds of all networked data and enabling information access anytime, anywhere.

    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 GERMANY INTERNATIONAL EUROPE Technology_IT INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING PRODUCT SOURCE: McDATA Corporation

Copyright Business Wire 2005