McDATA in Leaders Quadrant of Leading Analyst Firm's Fibre Channel Magic Quadrant

Business Wire, Jan 9, 2006

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA)(Nasdaq:MCDT) has been positioned in the "Leaders" quadrant of Gartner's 2005 Fibre Channel Magic Quadrant. According to Gartner, vendors listed in the Leaders quadrant are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market. Gartner calculated that in 1H05 McDATA retained the seven-percentage point lead in the core (director) segment that it enjoyed in 2004.

In early 2005, McDATA released its award-winning Intrepid(R) 10000 Director (i10K), the industry's first 256 port director and the only director with 10Gb/s ISL speeds. McDATA followed the i10K with the mid-year introduction of its 4 Gb/s Sphereon(TM) 4400 and 4700 Fabric Switches and McDATA-branded 2 Gb/s and 4 Gb/s embedded blade switches for HP, Dell and IBM.

"We believe Gartner's report confirms the success McDATA continues to have in leading with quality fibre channel switching solutions required for the enterprise market, while aggressively expanding our products and solutions to also meet the needs of the growing commercial space," said Wayne Morris, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, McDATA. "As this market becomes more competitive, McDATA has proven that it will continue to lead. McDATA is the only storage networking vendor with the experience and broad portfolio of products and solutions that can truly meet and grow in alignment with customer needs."

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.

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.

Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for SAN Fibre Channel Switches, 2005": J. Opfer, R. Passmore, Copyright December 28, 2005 by Gartner, Inc. and reused with permission, which permission should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant.

The Magic Quadrant is Gartner, Inc.'s opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Gartner does not advise enterprises to select only those firms in the "Leaders" quadrant. In some situations, firms in the Visionary, Challenger, or Niche Player quadrants may be the right matches for an enterprise's requirements. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources including other published information and direct analyst interaction. Gartner, Inc. expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, of fitness of this research for a particular purpose.