McDATA 4Gb/s Sphereon Fabric Switches Available Through Major OEMs and Channel Partners; McDATA's New Sphereon(TM) 4400 and 4700 with FlexPort Technology Deliver Affordable Connectivity with High Reliability, Flexibility, and Performance.BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT MCDT Micro Credit Development Trust SACCO (Uganda microfinance) MCDT Microsoft Certified Desktop Technician ), a leading provider of storage networking solutions, today announced the general availability of its Sphereon(TM) 4400 and Sphereon 4700 4Gb/s Fibre Channel switches Major manufacturers of Fibre Channel switches are: Brocade, Cisco, McData and Qlogic.
"McDATA's Sphereon 4400 and 4700 are the industry's most scalable, feature-rich and easy to manage 4Gb/s Fibre Channel fabric A Fibre Channel fabric (or Fibre Channel switched fabric, FC-SW) is a switched fabric of Fibre Channel devices enabled by a Fibre Channel switch. Fabrics are normally subdivided by Fibre Channel zoning. Each fabric has a name server and provides other services. switches," said John Webster, senior analyst, Data Mobility Group. "By adding options such as 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. CUP connectivity, install and configuration wizards, and embedded browser-based SAN management, McDATA has moved ahead of current 4Gb/s fabric switch offerings." Building on McDATA's FlexPort pay-as-you-grow technology -- first introduced to the industry with McDATA's Sphereon 3200-series -- the 4Gb/s fabric switches support wizards for simple installation; unrestricted, non-blocking universal Fibre Channel ports to minimize complexity of adds, moves and changes to a SAN; and FICON CUP capability (on the 4700), which enables seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. into mainframe environments. McDATA's Sphereon 4400 and 4700 deliver scale and high performance at a competitive price, providing attractive solutions for SAN users that need higher throughput and simplified switch and server management. Standard features include: --Auto-negotiation of 1, 2 and 4Gb/s for backward compatibility See backward compatible. (jargon) backward compatibility - Able to share data or commands with older versions of itself, or sometimes other older systems, particularly systems it intends to supplant. --FlexPort technology providing scale-on-demand, pay-as-you-grow capability --Unrestricted non-blocking universal Fibre Channel ports --HotCAT(TM) online code upgrades and activation --Browser-based EFCM EFCM Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager Basic (formerly SANpilot) for simpler fabric management --Simple installation and setup using wizards --Compatibility with McDATA's Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) or SANavigator SAN management applications for enterprise-wide management "With this generation of switches, we've created the optimal combination of price and functionality for scale-on-demand, access-layer connectivity," said Doug Ingraham, vice president of product management, McDATA. "McDATA's 4Gb/s switches are the perfect SAN solution for small and medium businesses as well as a way for enterprise customers to easily scale their storage network. The Sphereon 4400/4700 is an integral part of providing customers a Global Enterprise Data Infrastructure when combined with McDATA's other products and services." McDATA's Sphereon 4400 and 4700 fabric switches are available now through McDATA and McDATA's extensive network of distributors and resellers. The switches will be available on September 9, 2005, through IBM. EMC will offer the switches beginning September 15, 2005. Partner Endorsements "Access Distribution is committed to providing our customers comprehensive IT solutions by offering industry-leading products and services," said Scott Zahl, vice president, marketing and vendor relations, Access Distribution. "With the introduction of the Sphereon 4400 and 4700, we can offer resellers best-of-breed options that address both current and future needs." "McDATA's 4Gbit/sec switches will be offered as part of EMC's comprehensive family of EMC Connectrix switches and directors. The new EMC Connectrix DS-4400M and DS-4700M models will help us address our customers networking requirements today while providing them with a seamless upgrade path to meet their future needs," said Marty Lans, director of SAN marketing, at EMC Corp. "Our partnership with McDATA is a testament to our continuing commitment to drive business value for our customers by bringing to market award-winning, state-of-the-art storage solutions," said Scott Genereux, executive vice president and general manager of worldwide sales, channels and support at Hitachi Data Systems. "Combining the new Sphereon 4400 and 4700 fabric switches with our industry-leading Hitachi TagmaStore(TM) product line enables our customers to deploy dynamic tiered storage A data storage system made up of two or more types of storage based on their access speed. For example, magnetic disk and tape or magnetic disk and optical disc are widely used in a tiered storage system. See HSM. strategies that deliver the business benefits of Application Optimized Storage(TM) solutions." "IBM and McDATA have collaborated to create a wide range of lower-price and high-performance 4 Gigabit per second entry and midrange midrange Epidemiology The halfway point or midpoint in a set of observations; for most data, MR is calculated as the sum of the smallest observation and the largest observation, divided by 2; for age data, one is added to the numerator; a midrange is usually solutions," said Bob Mahoney, SAN Business Line Executive at IBM. "The new IBM TotalStorage SAN16M-2 and SAN32M-2 Express Models are ideally suited for SMB (1) (Small to Medium-sized Business) Also called "SME" (small to medium-sized enterprise), it refers to companies that are larger than the small office/home office (SOHO), but not huge. customers and are ready to support 4Gb/s IBM servers and storage devices as they are introduced." About McDATA (www.mcdata.com) McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT) is the leading provider of storage networking solutions, helping customers build, globally connect, optimize and centrally manage data infrastructures across SAN, MAN and WAN environments. With nearly 25 years' experience developing SAN products, services and solutions, McDATA is the trusted partner in the world's largest data centers, connecting more than two-thirds of all networked data. 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, McDATA's relationships with EMC, IBM and HDS (Hitachi Data Systems, Santa Clara, CA, www.hds.com) A leading provider of high-end storage hardware, software and services. Part of the Information Systems & Telecommunications Division of Hitachi Ltd. 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 McDATA's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by McDATA should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by McDATA. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. McDATA does 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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