McDATA i10K Xtreme and EFCM 9.0 Now Available Through IBM.

4 Gb/s, Open VSANs and Advanced Management Capabilities Now Part of IBM's SAN256M

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- IBM customers now have even greater flexibility when it comes to SAN design now that IBM TotalStorage SAN256M is available with i10K Xtreme and Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager 9.0 enhancements from McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA)(Nasdaq:MCDT). McDATA's i10K Xtreme, packaged through IBM as SAN256M, is the first director with Open VSANs, non-disruptive 4 Gb/s configuration capabilities (added to previous 2 Gb/s and 10Gb/s capabilities), SAN LPARs for total SAN isolation, and Open Trunking for optimized performance between directors and switches.

IBM SAN256M from McDATA provides customers with a unique set of features designed for flexible SAN design and easier management. Management simplicity is further achieved with EFCM 9.0, the latest McDATA software release that bundles and builds upon three previously separate McDATA management applications to create a single, powerful SAN management platform. EFCM 9.0 provides advanced multi-vendor fabric management, performance monitoring, and security features to optimize and protect resources, while reducing administration time and costs.

"IBM customers can stretch their storage networking investments even further with the latest capabilities added to IBM TotalStorage SAN product family from McDATA," said Robert Mahoney, IBMBusiness Line Executive, Storage Networking and NSeries Products. "We're especially pleased to offer our customers advanced solutions which will allow them to combine and manage their Open and FICON networks within a single chassis."

SAN administrators can manage their growing networks without the need for additional equipment space in the data center with IBM Total Storage SAN 256M Director's ability to support up to eight, 32-port Fibre Channel switches blades within a single chassis. This allows a single domain director with up to 256 full duplex, auto-sensing ports to exist in a single 14U enclosure. New 4Gb/s line modules, introduce with McDATA's i10K Xtreme enhancements, auto-negotiate to the highest speed of the attached host or storage device. In addition, McDATA's EFCM 9.0 incorporates and builds upon the core technologies of SANavigator, SANvergence and EFCM to provide a single platform to manage McDATA and multi-vendor storage networks.

"McDATA remains committed to working with IBM and other partners to provide customers with easier, more protected data access," said Chris Roberts, vice president of OEM channel development, McDATA. "We are please to team with IBM to offer their customers advanced tools for simple, cost-effective storage network management."

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.