John Kelley to Speak at Event for Denver Business Leaders

Business Wire, May 15, 2006

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- John Kelley, Chairman, CEO, and President of McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT), will share his insights on successful corporate leadership during a fireside chat with Denver's leading business executives, 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 24, 2006, at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. During the event, hosted by the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Kelley will discuss the dynamic role of the CEO and the chief executive's responsibility in bringing a company through internal, legislative, and industry changes.

Kelley joined McDATA in August 2001 and has successfully transitioned the company from a storage switch vendor to a worldwide provider of storage networking products, professional services and solutions. Kelley has a 30-year history of successful leadership at technology companies including executive vice president for Qwest Communications.

Bert Taylor, group publisher for Wiesner Publishing, will moderate the fireside chat. Taylor manages ColoradoBiz, a regional business-to-business magazine and online resource serving the Denver area. The host organization, ACG, is the premier global association for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions for mid- to large-sized companies. The organization provides networking opportunities with influential local business leaders.

The event is limited to pre-registered CEOs and CFOs of companies with more than $10 million annual revenue. Interested participants can register for the fireside chat at www.acg.org/denver.> 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, 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.