McDATA, StorageTek Enhance Flexibility and Scalability of FICON Storage Environments.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers BROOMFIELD and LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2003 Companies Delivering First Native FICON-Capable Fabric Switch Solution to Customers Worldwide McDATA(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA/MCDT), the expert provider of multi-capable storage networking solutions, and StorageTek (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :STK), the storage services and solutions expert, today announced that StorageTek has contracted to resell re·sell tr.v. re·sold , re·sell·ing, re·sells 1. To sell again. 2. To sell (a product or service) to the public or to an end user, especially as an authorized dealer. McDATA's Sphereon(TM) 3232 FICON (FIber CONnector) An IBM mainframe channel introduced with its G5 servers in 1998. Based on the Fibre Channel standard, it boosts the transfer rate of ESCON's half-duplex 17MB/sec to a full-duplex 100MB/sec. fabric switch with in-band FICON management, otherwise known as Control Unit Port (CUP). The move makes StorageTek the first storage vendor to bring the benefits of native FICON to market via a more cost-effective and flexible fabric switch solution. Together with StorageTek's newly FICON-enabled T9840B tape drive, the tape/fabric switch solution allows enterprises to cost-effectively consolidate their tape network infrastructure. The joint solution takes FICON connectivity to the edge of storage area networks to deliver a substantial performance increase over ESCON (Enterprise Systems CONnection) An IBM S/390 fiber-optic channel that transfers 17 Mbytes/sec over distances up to 60 km depending on connection type. ESCON allows peripheral devices to be located across large campuses and metropolitan areas. channels while offering customers an economical alternative to attaching FICON tape to Director-class ports. "Working closely with a technology leader like McDATA, StorageTek is taking proactive steps to help our customers reduce their total cost of ownership for their networks," said Jill Kenney, StorageTek executive vice president, Worldwide Marketing and Corporate Strategy. "Companies now have a solution that frees premium director-class switch A fault-tolerant Fibre Channel switch that typically has a high port count and may serve as a central switch to other fabrics. See Fibre Channel. ports to support other data traffic." The joint solution answers customer demand for simplified fabric switch solutions for both FICON and open systems environments. The 3232 incorporates technology that is environment agnostic ag·nos·tic n. 1. a. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God. b. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism. 2. , enabling companies to merge their mainframe and open systems networks for lower network costs and greater operational efficiencies. StorageTek supplies drives for both FICON and FC, in support of both environments. "Partnering with StorageTek to bring FICON CUP to the edge of the FICON SAN was a natural choice given their leadership in the half-inch tape A magnetic tape format that has been in use since the 1950s. Second-generation computers used 7-track, half-inch tape in open reels that were threaded by hand. Third-generation computers used 9-track open reels. industry," said Mike Gustafson, McDATA senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "By coupling the high-performance FICON T9840B tape drive with a McDATA Sphereon 3232 fabric switch, end users get one of the best performing, most flexible, and economical FICON tape drive consolidation solution available." StorageTek will make McDATA's Sphereon 3232 FICON Fabric Switch available to its customers in Europe, Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. , North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and Asia/Pacific beginning mid-June. About McDATA (www.mcdata.com) McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA/MCDT) is the expert provider of Multi-Capable Storage Networking Solutions(TM) -- hardware, software and services -- that enable 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. Entrenched en·trench also in·trench v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. in over 8,000 data centers worldwide, McDATA solutions are at the heart of more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 storage network data centers, powering the latest e-business applications, customer databases, financial traffic and other mission-critical data. Customers leverage McDATA's multi-capable solutions to realize immediate cost savings, reduce their investment risk, ensure the continuity of their operations and adapt to changing business requirements. About StorageTek StorageTek (NYSE:STK), a $2 billion worldwide company with headquarters in Louisville, Colo., delivers a broad range of storage solutions that are easy to manage, integrate well with existing infrastructures and allow universal access to data across servers, media types and networks. StorageTek provides practical and safe storage solutions in disk, networking, services, tape and tape automation. For more information, see www.storagetek.com, or call 800/786-7835. Forward-Looking Statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. 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 ability to ramp SANavigator sales, our relationships with EMC Corporation EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is an American Fortune 500 and S&P 500 manufacturer of software and systems for information management and storage. It is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and the level of their orders, the impact of the continued general economic slowdown on purchasing decisions by customers and capital spending capital spending Spending for long-term assets such as factories, equipment, machinery, and buildings that permits the production of more goods and services in future years. , our ability to complete the successful implementation of an "outsourcing-focused" manufacturing model, our ability to expand sales into higher margin channels through system integrators and distributors, a loss of any of our key customers (or our OEMs' key customers), distributors, resellers or our contract manufacturers, our ability to expand our product offerings and any transition to new products (such as higher port count and multi-protocol products) and OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and qualification of such new products which may occur after the general availability dates The date after notification of mobilization by which forces will be marshalled at their home station or mobilization station and available for deployment. See also home station; mobilization; mobilization station. , possible inventory charges that may occur with any transition to such new products, component quality and availability, the development of the storage area network and switch markets, competition in the storage area network and switch markets, aggressive pricing and product give-aways by competitors, one-time events and other important risk factors disclosed previously and from time to time in our filings at the U.S. 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. We cannot always predict or determine after the fact what factors would cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements or other statements. 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. TRADEMARKS: StorageTek is a registered trademark of Storage Technology Corp. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners. |
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