Force10 Sees Resiliency and Performance Demands Driving 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adoption in European Data Centers.

MILPITAS, Calif. -- The most significant impact of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in Europe will be in the corporate data center, where reliable infrastructure is crucial, Michael Augustine, Force10 Networks country manager for the UK, said today during a conference hosted by Force10 and attended by representatives from some of Europe's leading oil and gas, media, finance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and telecommunications enterprises.

"The new data center infrastructure must be highly resilient and deliver an enormous amount of capacity to support a diverse base of users and applications," said Augustine. "To more effectively utilize computing resources and complex, bandwidth-intensive applications, 10 Gigabit Ethernet is an ideal alternative that transforms the data center into a business asset."

The half-day seminar explored the role of reliable 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology in data centers. Camille Mendler, senior vice president at Yankee Group, highlighted the importance of a highly resilient data center infrastructure in protecting against the increasing cost of network downtime while speakers from Veritas DGC, the University of Liverpool and Quantel, discussed new computing and service opportunities enabled by 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

In Europe, early adopters of 10 Gigabit Ethernet are already deploying the technology in their data centers. Recently, Petroleum Geo-Services increased the performance of its data center six-fold with the Force10 E-Series switch/routers. Additionally, Veritas DGC and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts have deployed the E-Series in their data centers to increase reliability and speed the time it takes to access information.

The Force10 E-Series combines unmatched scalability with best-in-class resiliency to provide a new level of network and application predictability. Leveraging three distinct processing units for switching, routing and management functionality, the Force10 EtherScale architecture enables the E-Series to reliably deliver line-rate Gigabit and 10 Gigabit throughput across all ports regardless of traffic conditions.

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 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 and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.