McDATA CEO John Kelley to Deliver SNW Keynote; McDATA To Also Demonstrate New 4 Gbit/s Switching Capabilities.

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- McDATA president, chairman and CEO John Kelley will share his vision for the future of tiered storage networks and the Global Enterprise Data Center (GEDC) when he addresses an audience of the nearly 3,000 networking professionals expected to attend Storage Networking World's Spring conference, April 11-15, at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Ariz. Kelley's "Industry Leader" presentation is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. MDT on Thursday, April 14, 2005.

McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA) (Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of data infrastructure solutions, will showcase its full family of products during the conference, including a preview of its new 4 Gbit/s Sphereon(TM) fabric switches, which feature McDATA's innovative FlexPort technology. McDATA will initially introduce 4 Gbit/s technology at the access layer of the tiered storage network, to be followed by 4 Gbit/s capability at the distribution layer and within the backbone of the GEDC. McDATA's Intrepid(R) series director family, including the Intrepid 10000, 6140, and 6064, will seamlessly and non-disruptively be upgradeable to 4 Gbit/s technology.

McDATA's Sphereon fabric switches, Intrepid 10000 and 6140 directors, Eclipse(TM) 2640 and 1620 SAN Routers, SANavigator(R) 4.2 and EFCM 8.5 with Security center will be on display in McDATA booth #P5.

"As 4 Gbit/s Fibre Channel technology rolls out, users will continue to be mindful of interoperability, seamless backbone connectivity, and secure management capabilities," said John Webster, senior analyst, Data Mobility Group. "With the addition of 4 Gbit/s capability to its Sphereon fabric switches and Intrepid directors, McDATA brings these data center-quality features to small first-time SAN users as well as larger enterprises looking to build out existing storage fabrics."

"McDATA's upcoming 4 Gbit/s capability, coupled with our pioneering technology such as FlexPort and FlexPars, along with our award-winning management software, will offer all of the benefits customers enjoy with McDATA's current products, but with increased performance," said Wayne Morris, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, McDATA. "With McDATA, customers can deploy scalable storage networking architectures that are simple, flexible and reliable, and can evolve to support the tiered network infrastructure of the Global Enterprise Data Center."

McDATA will participate in the FCIA 4 Gbit/s Technology Demo in the FCIA Booth #C10 with its new Sphereon product, and will showcase multiple solutions in the Interoperability and Solutions lab.

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, McDATA's 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 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.