EMC to Offer McDATA's Third Generation SAN Router

EMC to Offer McDATA's Third Generation SAN Router

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    BROOMFIELD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2005--

New EMC Connectrix MP-2640M SAN Router, a Key Component of Tiered Storage Networking Strategies, Now Available From EMC
    McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of storage networking solutions, today announced that EMC has added McDATA's Eclipse(TM) 2640 SAN Router to the EMC(R) Connectrix(R) family of switches and directors. The new Connectrix MP-2640M is a key component to tiered storage networking and can enable customers to improve their information lifecycle management strategies by providing low cost host access and SAN connectivity.
    "EMC is the leader in information storage and management and the new EMC Connectrix MP-2640M SAN router will help enable more comprehensive information lifecycle management solutions. For customers, this is a cost-effective solution that will help them derive additional value from their data by consolidating resources, improving asset utilization and improving business continuity," said Tom Joyce, EMC's vice president of platforms marketing.
    The Connectrix MP-2640M SAN router can be deployed as a layer 3 device in a tiered storage network, and is key to helping customers achieve an environment where business data can be moved and managed across an extended global storage network according to its unique value.
    "The McDATA/EMC partnership is positive and beneficial for both companies. EMC delivers solutions to customers to address ILM needs, and McDATA's Eclipse 2640 SAN router helps them with the growing customer demand for heterogeneous asset consolidation, performance and connectivity. Through this viable partnering, customers can extend and scale the value of the investments they have already made," said Randy Kerns, Evaluator Group. "Importantly, McDATA's iSCSI, iFCP and Fibre Channel capable Eclipse 2640 offers customers connectivity options for greater customization."
    The EMC Connectrix MP-2640M SAN router provides the robust Fibre Channel SAN routing, interoperability, distance extension and tiered infrastructure capabilities that enables customers to deploy information lifecycle management strategies across their global enterprise. The FC/iSCSI/iFCP capable 2640 leverages existing investments in IP networks while optimizing FC storage resources; providing customers with investment protection for existing environments while enabling migration to future technologies. Maximizing infrastructure scalability, the high-performance EMC Connectrix MP-2640M SAN router improves network integrity and bandwidth utilization while it simplifies network design and management, resulting in cost-effective and reliable access to shared-resources for disparate SAN islands as well as low-end servers over any distance.
    "We are pleased to have EMC as one of the first OEMs to offer McDATA's Eclipse 2640 SAN router as part of the EMC Connectrix family. Customers can cost effectively and securely interconnect SAN islands across the entire corporate enterprise and in turn, create much better efficiencies in storage asset utilization and management," said Jonathan Buckley, vice president of software, routing and WAN business lines, McDATA. "As we saw in the early 1990s when IP LANs got connected to WANs, the Eclipse 2640 signals a similar model shift in the storage network world. McDATA calls this the Global Enterprise Data Center -- an interconnected and tiered storage network."

    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, our 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 our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by us should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by us. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. We do 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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CONTACT: McDATA Corporation Media: Jil Backstrom, 720-558-4774 press.release@mcdata.com or Investors: Renee Lyall, 720-558-4629 renee.lyall@mcdata.com

KEYWORD: COLORADO GERMANY INTERNATIONAL EUROPE Technology_IT INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING SOURCE: McDATA Corporation

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