Force10 Networks Highlights the Application Advantages of 10 Gigabit Ethernet for the Oil and Gas Services Industry During the SEG Exposition.

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Force10 Networks today announced that it is highlighting the role of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in enabling a new generation of exploration applications for the oil and gas services industry during the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) International Exposition, Oct. 10-15, 2004, in Denver, booth 1265. The oil and gas services industry relies on extremely bandwidth-intensive applications for processing and analyzing data, making it a leading early adopter of high performance networking technologies, such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

"To process the seismic data that simplifies exploration and drilling, oil and gas companies require an enormous amount of processing capacity and network bandwidth," said Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing for Force10 Networks. "Resilient 10 Gigabit Ethernet is a natural solution to interconnect the servers and computers that provide the capacity for the new generation of imaging and analysis applications."

The Force10 TeraScale E-Series scales up to 672 line-rate Gigabit or 56 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis, providing unmatched scalability for oil and gas companies that are rapidly expanding their data processing services. With built-in redundancy, a fully distributed architecture and line-rate throughput regardless of traffic conditions, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series provides the reliability and scalability that brings predictable performance to the network.

In the oil and gas industry, technological improvements serve as a powerful competitive advantage, enabling companies to rapidly analyze data and provide the information their clients need to explore for hydrocarbon fields, develop new fields and manage production oil reserves.

Recently, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) increased the performance of its network six-fold by deploying the Force10 E-Series in the core of its data center. The Force10 E-Series ensures that PGS' Teraflops of processing power and Terabytes of data storage are used efficiently and effectively, dramatically increasing the speed with which PGS helps its customers locate new fields and discover better ways of extracting oil from existing ones.

Veritas DGC (NYSE:VTS) is also leveraging the best-in-class redundancy and high density, line-rate throughput of the E-Series to increase network resiliency and performance. With the predictable performance of the Force10 E-Series at the foundation of its advanced clusters, Veritas is delivering its suite of integrated geophysical services worldwide and enhancing its clients' drilling and production success.

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.

Force10, E-Series, EtherScale, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.