McDATA Launches i10K Xtreme.

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- Reduces SAN Costs, While Improving SAN Design, Security and Diagnostic Capabilities

Storage networking customers now have access to even greater SAN design options, with McDATA Corporation's (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT) new i10K Xtreme. Announced today, the i10K Xtreme is the first director with Open VSANs, non-disruptive 4 Gb/s configuration capabilities (added to previous 2 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s capabilities), SAN LPARs for total SAN isolation, and Open Trunking for optimized performance between directors and switches. McDATA's i10K Xtreme is the only director that provides customers with a complete set of features designed for flexible SAN design and easier management.

For customers who need absolute isolation (such as those with regulatory compliance mandates or those requiring total isolation of different departments or applications), SAN LPARs provide complete, secure physical isolation. SAN LPARs are also designed to help customers save management and capital costs by allowing mixed FICON and Open Systems SAN LPARs within a single director chassis. When absolute security and isolation are not necessary, customers can still manage logically separate switches inside the i10K Xtreme, using Open VSANs. Based on industry standards led by McDATA, Open VSANs allow customers to easily add as little as a single port to an existing Open VSAN, providing a cost-effective way to scale individual SANs.

New Open Trunking capabilities allow customers to optimize performance across multiple inter-switch links (ISLs), of mixed speeds, and to switches and devices from any vendor. Added authentication and radius support for greater security allow customers to lock down networks from accidental or malicious intrusions; and new advanced diagnostics (like fibre channel ping and optic monitoring) eliminate down time by preventing problems before they occur.

All of the i10K Xtreme's new features, and all of McDATA's directors, are easier than ever to deploy and manage, with today's announced availability of EFCM 9.0 -- a single, simplified platform for heterogeneous SAN management (see press release titled: "McDATA Launches Industry's First Unified Platform for Heterogeneous SAN Management").

True to McDATA's commitment to investment protection, first generation i10K customers can gain all the benefits of the i10K Xtreme with simple software and bandwidth upgrades. Open VSAN, Open Trunking and all of the i10K Xtreme's new diagnostic and security capabilities are added with a firmware upgrade. 4 Gb/s line cards can be added, non-disruptively, to any existing i10K or i10K Xtreme as customers' high bandwidth storage subsystems, servers, and inter-switch links requirements evolve.

"McDATA is committed to flexible SAN design and the highest levels of network uptime," said Raj Das, vice president of product marketing, McDATA. "McDATA continues to lead the industry in innovation and customer investment protection with the McDATA i10K Xtreme."

McDATA's i10K Xtreme is available now from McDATA and independent McDATA resellers. The i10K Xtreme will be available for EMC beginning Sept. 15, 2006, and will be available from other OEM partners within McDATA's Q3.

About McDATA (www.mcdata.com)

McDATA (Nasdaq:MCDTA) (Nasdaq:MCDT) is the leading provider of data access 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 

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 Hitachi Data Systems and the level of their orders, aggressive price competition by numerous other SAN and IP switch suppliers, OEM qualification of our new products -- such as the Intrepid 10000 Director, integration of CNT's sales and marketing functions, manufacturing constraints, constraints in obtaining third party product for resale 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.