Brocade and XIOtech Release SOLUTIONware for Business Continuance and Storage Consolidation Using XIOtech MAGNITUDE Enterprise Storage in Brocade SANs

Business Wire, Dec 10, 2001

Business Editors & Technology Writers

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2001

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide Speeds

Storage Area Network Deployment

XIOtech Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate and a storage area network (SAN) pioneer, and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (Nasdaq:BRCD), the world's leading provider of infrastructure for SANs, announced today their first joint Brocade SOLUTIONware(TM) to help their mutual customers speed SAN implementation in a XIOtech and Brocade environment. The new SOLUTIONware describes an enterprise SAN configuration for storage consolidation and remote mirroring. This allows companies to reclaim unused storage capacity and to back up their data to a remote location, enabling business continuance in case of a disruptive event.

Storage Array Virtualization for Heterogeneous Hosts Environment Using the XIOtech MAGNITUDE, describes how to implement Brocade SilkWorm(R) fabric switches in a SAN with the XIOtech MAGNITUDE(TM) SAN hardware platform. The combination of technology from Brocade and XIOtech provides customers with a flexible, easy-to-deploy solution that combines individual disk drives into a pool of shared storage, thereby simplifying data management and optimizing storage capacity that would otherwise go unused. Leveraging XIOtech's REDI(TM) SAN Links Replicator software and a redundant networked architecture, companies can also mirror their data, replicating it to a remote site to which operations can fail over following a disruptive event. A demonstration of this configuration is available to visitors at the Brocade Executive Briefing Center in San Jose, Calif.

"For many businesses that are facing the daunting task of storing, managing, and administering an ever-increasing amount of business-critical data with limited resources, optimizing storage capacity creates immediate efficiencies in the datacenter that generate a significant return on investment," said Jay Kidd, Brocade Vice President of Product Marketing. "By migrating from a direct-attached storage environment to a SAN, companies can optimize their investments in servers, storage, and personnel resources, dramatically reducing the total cost of ownership for their storage environments. We are pleased to work with XIOtech to make resources available that help our customers speed and simplify this crucial migration."

"This joint SOLUTIONware provides customers with a step-by-step solution combining the flexibility, scalability, and ease of the XIOtech MAGNITUDE with the speed and intelligence of Brocade fabric switches to enable business continuance solutions such as remote mirroring," said Richard Blaschke, Executive Vice President of Marketing for XIOtech. "Brocade and XIOtech work together to provide our customers with the best service in the storage market, and this guide is the latest product of that commitment."

With the addition of the new SOLUTIONware, Brocade now offers more than 50 SOLUTIONware configurations to the public. XIOtech and Brocade regularly produce guides for enterprise storage customers--Brocade through its SOLUTIONware offerings and XIOtech through its Enterprise Solutions Program. With verified Brocade SOLUTIONware and XIOtech Enterprise Solution Guides, customers benefit in reduced SAN deployment time, gaining a quicker return on their technology investment.

About Brocade SOLUTIONware

Brocade SOLUTIONware(TM) simplifies SAN implementation by providing proven and pre-tested "recipes for success" for addressing today's most challenging data management requirements. Each of the more than 50 SOLUTIONware guides provides step-by-step instructions on how to integrate and configure a wide range of devices with Brocade SilkWorm(R) fabric switches in discrete SAN solutions for applications such as LAN-free and server-free backup, server and storage consolidation, high availability, and business continuance. Brocade works closely with application, storage, and systems partners to ensure seamless interoperability of solutions in these environments. For more information on Brocade SOLUTIONware, visit www.Brocade.com/SAN/sansolutions.html.> About the XIOtech Enterprise Solutions Program

To help its customers implement end-to-end, enterprise storage strategies, XIOtech developed the Enterprise Solutions Program. Enterprise Solutions have been qualified and tested by XIOtech's storage experts to ensure interoperability, seamless implementation, and maximum performance. The cornerstone of each solution is the Solution Guide, which provides detailed, step-by-step instructions on implementing the particular storage solution. The Solution Guide identifies the right equipment and shows the customer how to connect all the pieces.

About Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Brocade (Nasdaq:BRCD) offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm(R) family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the Brocade website at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.