Ontario School Districts Give Hitachi Data Systems, McDATA and CONPUTE High Marks for Wireless Disaster Recovery Solution.

Affordable Business Continuity Offering Reduces Cost and Complexity of Remote Synchronous Data Replication over a Wireless Wide-Area Network

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Hitachi Data Systems, provider of Application Optimized Storage[TM] solutions and a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), and McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA)(Nasdaq:MCDT), a leading provider of data access solutions, today announced in association with Redline Communications, a leading provider of standards-based broadband wireless equipment, and CONPUTE, a Solution Services company specializing in Data Centre and broadband solutions, that two school boards in Peterborough, Ontario will be deploying a combined Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA remote data replication solution, using Redline wireless technology, for disaster recovery and maintaining business continuity between their respective data centers.

The Kawartha Pine Ridge (KPR) District School Board serves 82 elementary schools and 15 secondary schools, reaching more than 37,000 students in Peterborough County. Neighboring Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington (PVNC) Catholic School Board, encompasses 32 elementary and 6 secondary schools, serves more than 15,500 students. The two boards are working collaboratively to leverage economies of scale offered by the solution in the event of a disaster situation. The solution enables synchronous bi-directional replication between locations to speed-up data recovery, minimize data loss and protect data integrity in the event of an outage - securing the information of thousands of students.

"With our curriculum becoming ever more reliant on educational software tools, students completing more of their class work on school-owned systems, and school administrators utilizing technology to interact with parents and maintain student records, our school boards need to ensure that critical IT services can be assessed and restored quickly in the event of potential outages," said Ronald Plaizier, chief information officer, KPR District Public School Board. "With CONPUTE's assistance in the deployment of the solution relative to our Business Continuity Plan, we are now able to mitigate the impact due to loss and recovery of vital board functions."

"The integrated Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA solution, designed by CONPUTE, provides us with an enterprise-scale disaster recovery solution at a SMB price point," said Anthony Brice, manager, Technology Systems, KPR District Public School Board. "This allows us to meet our recovery point and recovery time objectives and provides our students, teachers, and administrators the peace of mind to confidently and confidentially utilize sophisticated storage solutions to enhance the learning experience."

Making the Grade with a Lower Cost, High-Performance Wireless Solution

For both KPR and PVNC, data replication over the WAN to enable disaster recovery was unrealistic given the limited budgets constraints K-12 institutions operate under. It was cost prohibitive due to the dedicated infrastructure and bandwidth required to replicate data and the complexity of management.

Working with Hitachi Data Systems GOLD channel partner CONPUTE, the boards will utilize the world-class remote replication capabilities of Hitachi Data Systems TrueCopy synchronous software running on Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) systems, FC to IP conversion and compression of the McDATA Eclipse 1620 SAN router, and the high speed connectivity of the OEMed Redline AN-50 backhaul wireless solution. The result is a simple-to-maintain, low-cost remote replication configuration that enables the school districts to replicate synchronously between their respective data centers, creating a real-time redundant copy of critical information for use in the event of an outage or scheduled downtime. For the two school boards, this joint solution offered the flexibility, high performance and economy of scale answer to their respective disaster recovery and business continuity requirements.

The boards, already familiar with secure wireless broadband solutions, will share a data link of approximately 49Mbps+ between education centers to facilitate their data replication needs. Utilizing the bi-directional capabilities of their respective Hitachi AMS systems running Hitachi TrueCopy the school boards required less investment in dedicated Fibre Channel ports compared to other solutions. In addition, McDATA's Eclipse technology will perform data compression to maximize their use of available bandwidth. Leveraging each other's IT staff (trained on like systems) in the event of a pandemic or site failover was crucial to maintaining flexibility in managing through a disaster. The ability to restore critical data using remote volumes quickly versus tape recovery will gain both boards precious time during any outage.

"By leveraging off-the-shelf compression and data replication technology, we were able to design a turn-key solution that met the customer's assessed risk and mitigates the impact of lost IT services during a disaster, dramatically improving their overall business continuity capabilities," said Terry Buchanan, vice president, Services, CONPUTE. "The wireless component enables long distance-high speed IP network connectivity between respective data centers, for a total CAPEX that averages to a few months of traditional TELCO T3 leasing costs. This eliminates OPEX traditionally associated with remote replication bandwidth and allows funding to be allocated to a disaster recovery infrastructure."

For more information on the wireless remote replication solution, visit the live demo at Storage Networking World Fall 2006, JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort Orlando, Florida,

Pavilion Booth P19 and Platinum Galleria Booth PG4.

About CONPUTE

Established in 1983, CONPUTE is a Solution Services Company helping organizations use Information Technology to cut costs, increase revenues and improve customer satisfaction. We partner with organizations that need help expanding or managing their IT resources. CONPUTE specializes in four practice areas to address customer IT infrastructure goals including data centre, security, wireless & IP and outsourcing. CONPUTE builds solutions that allow our clients to effectively secure, store and access information. We continually reinvest in our team of experienced professionals to deliver exceptional value in today's challenging business environment. We pride ourselves on offering an outstanding customer experience to our clients through personalized support and consultative advice. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.conpute.com.

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.

About Redline Communications

Redline Communications is the leading provider of standards-based wireless broadband solutions. Redline's WiMAX Forum Certified[TM] systems and award-winning backhaul and transport products enable service providers and other network operators to cost-effectively deliver high-bandwidth services including voice, video and data communications. Redline is committed to maintaining its wireless industry leadership with the continued development of WiMAX and other advanced wireless broadband products. With more than 30,000 installations in 75 countries, and a global network of over 100 partners, Redline's experience and expertise helps service providers, enterprises and government organizations roll out the services and applications that drive their business forward. For more information, visit www.redlinecommunications.com.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and scalability to maximize customers' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the customer's perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers' business needs.

With approximately 3,200 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries and regions. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT)(TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

[c] 2006, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. Application Optimized Storage is a trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used herein are the rightful property of their respective owners.