Brocade

Brocade Enhances the 48000 SAN Director for HP Customers with Mainframe Environments

2007-11-12T17:19:00Z

FICON Qualification of the Brocade 48000 Brings New Levels of Performance Capabilities to Enterprise Customers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade®) (Nasdaq: BRCD - News), a leading provider of data center solutions, today announced that the Brocade 48000 Director is now qualified for FICON® on the HP StorageWorks 4/256 SAN Director in XP storage array environments. Enterprises that rely on HP systems for their most critical data and applications can now benefit from the higher-performing enterprise SAN solutions for FICON and open system Fibre Channel for servers and storage.

"The outstanding reliability and performance of HP XP systems are critical for many enterprise applications," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of worldwide marketing. "Organizations that are looking to create next-generation solutions to deliver applications and protect vital data now have a complete end-to-end solution to rely upon."

To help protect the investment on the Brocade 48000, the 384-port director provides FICON/Fibre Channel intermix, FICON Control Unit Port (CUP), FICON cascading, for HP XP storage solutions in mainframe environments. The advanced custom-chip technology, at the heart of the Brocade 4 Gbit/sec family of SAN products, is optimized for lower power consumption per port than any other FICON/Fibre Channel director available today. As a result, Brocade estimates that the monthly cost of electrical power for the Brocade 48000 could be up to 66 percent lower than comparable port density directors that operate at just 2 Gbit/sec.(1)

"By adding FICON support to the HP SAN Director in XP storage environments, enterprise customers can achieve a higher level of performance for their business-critical data and applications," said Kyle Fitze, director of marketing, StorageWorks SAN Division, HP. "With support for both mainframe and open systems, customers are able to protect and optimize their investments in servers and storage."

Exceptional performance and reliability along with "five-nines" availability and enhanced security features provide stringent change controls and highly robust switch-to-switch authentication for cascaded FICON topologies. In addition, frame-level trunking now supports up to 32 Gbit/sec of bandwidth in cascaded configurations within the data center and between sites.

As the leader in bringing the next generation of storage networking performance to market, Brocade designed the Brocade 48000 Director and 4 Gbit/sec FICON/Fibre Channel switches to be fully compatible with existing Brocade storage network offerings. The products share a common code base and ensure "pay-as-you-grow" scalability and support for multiple protocols and transports. Brocade also offers the FICON-qualified, Brocade 4100 4 Gbit/sec midrange switch, which is designed to provide customers a complete range of FICON SAN solutions ranging from 16 to 384 ports.

For more information on the HP 4 Gbit/sec SAN product line visit: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/networking/b_switches/index.html.

(1) Enterprise Strategy Group, "ESG Lab Validation Report," March 2007.

The report is available at http://www.brocade.com/san/pdf/whitepapers/ESG%20Lab_Validation_Report_Brocade _VirtualFabric_WP_00.lr.pdf.

About Brocade

Brocade is the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, SAN Health, and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

Brocade Data Center Solutions Enhance Microsoft Virtual Server Environments

2007-11-12T17:18:00Z

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Leverages Brocade Access Gateway Technology for Additional Functionality and Greater Reliability in Virtual Server Environments

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD - News), a leader in data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that it is working with Microsoft to bring greater application mobility and higher levels of reliability to data centers deploying Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007. When used together in a virtual server environment running Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, Brocade Access Gateway technology and System Center Virtual Machine Manager optimize and simplify the often complex relationship between server and storage connectivity in the data center.

Key Brocade Storage Area Network (SAN) products support Access Gateway, an N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)-based technology that enables multiple virtual servers to share and connect over a single physical interface. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager uses these Brocade-enabled SAN connections for easier application mobility, increased availability, and greater system reliability.

"Virtualization is fundamentally changing the data center," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. "Brocade has partnered with Microsoft to deliver optimized blade server and server virtualization solutions that improve asset utilization in evolving data centers."

"System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 helps customers to assess and consolidate suitable server workloads onto virtual machines, freeing up physical resources for repurposing or hardware retirement," said David Greschler, director of System Center marketing at Microsoft Corp. "We're working with Brocade to simplify server and storage connectivity, and providing customers scalable storage infrastructure for virtualized IT environments. We look forward to partnering with Brocade on other solutions in support of System Center systems management products."

About Brocade

Brocade is a leading provider of data center networking solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

University of Iowa Updates Academic and Administrative Services With Brocade SAN Solutions and Services

2007-11-06T22:39:00Z

Midwest Institute Uses Brocade Directors, Switches, and Fabric OS to Increase Application Performance, Simplify Management, and Reduce Expenses

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that the University of Iowa, a major U.S. research institution, implemented Brocade Storage Area Network (SAN) directors, switches, and the Brocade Fabric operating system to increase application performance, simplify management, and reduce expenses.

"At the University of Iowa, we depend on scalable, high-performance storage systems to provide our user community with smooth, uninterrupted access to academic and administrative applications," said Peter Brokaw, Manager of UNIX Systems Administration for Information Technology Services (ITS), the university's central provider of IT services. "Brocade lets us meet current capacity requirements with room to grow as we add new servers and storage devices."

A Solution for High Performance and Scalable Growth

ITS maintains two data centers that provide academic and administrative applications for nearly 45,000 students, faculty, and staff throughout the University's 19,000-acre campus. The university's 11 colleges are devoted to the study of liberal arts, business, medicine, education, engineering, law, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and public health. ITS uses the SAN to provide many essential services for campus, including e-mail and file services for most faculty, staff, and students, database support for many departments, software development, and library automation.

In 2000, ITS deployed a then state-of-the-art dual-fabric SAN to support rapidly increasing computing, data, application, and storage demands. However, these requirements grew exponentially over time with the introduction of new generation imaging and multimedia applications. To manage this growth, ITS added new servers and SAN devices. However, this strategy in the long term required new levels of SAN performance and scalability.

To address the issues, ITS replaced multiple older switches with two Brocade 48000 Directors in its main data center and added Brocade Switches at a second on-campus facility used primarily for data mirroring. The Brocade 48000 Directors provide the foundation for a centralized, high-capacity SAN fabric as well as the scalability and throughput necessary for current and future data needs. The directors scale non-disruptively from 32 to as many as 384 concurrently active 4 Gbit/sec full-duplex ports in a single domain. The Brocade Switches also provide industry-leading 4 Gbit/sec performance for ITS's mirroring center and scale up to 32 ports with a simple license activation. ITS also implemented Brocade Fabric OS, which provides enterprise-class high availability, reliability, and security for the SAN.

The SAN was upgraded, and a team from the Brocade Services organization verified the installation. "We were very satisfied with the work performed by Brocade Services representatives," said Dave Shafer, University of Iowa ITS department's storage leader. "They were knowledgeable and efficient, and gave us confidence that the upgraded SAN was ready for production."

With the upgrades, applications used by students, faculty, and staff run faster and more efficiently. Examples of this improvement include the art department's new media cataloguing and archival system, which enables students to access large image files for study and art projects from anywhere on campus. The Brocade SAN streamlines the staff's use of scanning technology for archival purposes, reducing the school's dependency on paper files. It also supports a new library catalogue system facilitating research, as well as key administrative services. With the SAN directors helping to lower its overall hardware population, ITS also reduced its need for fiber cabling to support new storage devices, thereby lowering its cabling costs.

"The performance and scalability of our new Brocade directors and switches have given the entire university a boost in productivity," said Brokaw. "Moreover, Fabric OS has streamlined SAN administration for our IT staff, allowing us to manage and update our storage network much more easily and efficiently."

About Brocade

SOURCE Brocade - 10/29/2007

CONTACT:
media, Kathryn Craig of Brocade, +1-832-230-2249, kcraig@brocade.com; or
investors, Jeremy Bridgman, +1-212-880-5363, jeremy.bridgman@ogilvypr.com, or
Ian Yellin, +1-415-677-2714, ian.yellin@ogilvypr.com,
both of Ogilvy PR, for Brocade

Web site: http://www.brocade.com

Brocade Unveils Innovative Data Center Networking Architecture

2007-11-06T22:37:00Z

The new Brocade Data Center Fabric (DCF) enables greater efficiency and cost savings with minimal disruption and risk

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LAS VEGAS, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leading provider of data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced the Brocade Data Center Fabric (DCF) architecture, which responds to the urgent needs of businesses to make their data centers more efficient, reliable, and adaptable.

This announcement marks an important step in Brocade's drive to address customer needs in the evolving data center. As the long-time leader in Storage Area Networks (SANs), with a global installed base market share of greater than 80 percent, Brocade has unmatched expertise in helping the world's largest companies manage their most critical data. The company is now applying this expertise, with new technologies, to the broader data center architecture to maximize performance and increase adaptability, reliability, and efficiency -- all without forcing disruptive changes.

"CIOs and data center managers face the imperative to 'do more with less.' The Brocade DCF is designed to address this challenge," said Michael Klayko, Brocade Chief Executive Officer. "Customers have told us they need to cut costs and increase speed and flexibility, while also managing growing volumes of data. With Brocade DCF we are providing them with a framework to achieve these goals, while also leveraging their existing IT and operational resources and minimizing disruption."

The Brocade DCF architecture simplifies data center connectivity and reduces costs by combining storage networking and server-to-server clustering into a single, converged data center infrastructure. In addition, it adapts to the dynamics of virtualized servers and storage, while accommodating expanding application workloads and the relentless growth of corporate data.

At its annual end-user conference beginning in Las Vegas yesterday, Brocade also previewed a roadmap of new products and technologies that will help to deliver the benefits of this new architecture strategy. Over the next six months, Brocade plans to broaden its innovation and leadership by delivering a wide range of new solutions, technologies, and partnerships that support the Brocade DCF.

Cerner Corporation is the leading U.S. supplier of healthcare information technology solutions that optimize clinical and financial outcomes for the company's 1500 clients. "With data and the expectations around how to better manage continued growth, we're pleased to see the approach Brocade is taking with its DCF architecture in support of our future data center expansion requirements," said Tony Linville, Director, Infrastructure Services, Cerner Corporation. "The ability to add on advanced capabilities as our needs require, without making forklift upgrades, allows us to leverage our current investments to further stretch the bottom line."

"With DCF, Brocade aims to be adaptable to the changing needs of its data center customers," said John Webster, Principal IT Advisor, Illuminata, Inc. "Brocade's solution also encompasses its business partners, who already have significant positions in the data center."

Key Features and Advantages of the Brocade DCF

The new Brocade DCF architecture enables data center customers to optimize performance and better manage cost and risk. It provides several tangible and significant advantages compared to alternative approaches:

The Brocade DCF is an application-driven architecture. It adapts and responds to the changing needs for managing applications and data. Moreover, it provides a secure, reliable, and high-performance infrastructure to help ensure that mission-critical applications receive the resources they need in order to access and protect critical data.
The Brocade DCF utilizes the distributed intelligence of the data center. It leverages existing data center application, server, network, and storage elements to maximize functionality, flexibility, and choice for customers. Competing approaches typically advocate the migration or focus of intelligence to a single data center tier or element, often to the detriment of customer choice and flexibility.
The Brocade DCF is a policy-based architecture. It helps ensure that important data center services -- such as data security, encryption, backup, and replication -- are automatically available based on company business policies, and that they do not encumber the infrastructure when not in use.
The Brocade DCF simplifies and optimizes important new technologies such as server virtualization. Server virtualization can dramatically increase data center efficiency but also can create new complexities. The vast majority of virtual servers connect to networked storage, and Brocade is using its deep storage networking experience to optimize and automate these connections, helping customers to simplify their environments and operations.
The Brocade DCF provides customers with investment protection. DCF enables customers to leverage their existing IT resources -- including servers, storage, and SANs -- seamlessly incorporating them into the evolving, larger data center fabric. Brocade's framework maximizes cost savings, while minimizing disruption, risk, and incompatibilities.
The Brocade DCF gives the customer unparalleled choices. Brocade is working with industry-leading storage, server, and systems partners to ensure maximum compatibility and choice for customers within the Brocade DCF architectural framework. Customers can enjoy a best-in-class approach to servers, storage, protocols, virtualization techniques, and management tools.

New Products and Technologies to Deliver the Benefits of the Brocade DCF

Brocade also described a wide range of new products and technologies that it plans to introduce over the next six months to support and implement the Brocade DCF architecture:

The Brocade 48000, the industry's highest-performance SAN director, announced on October 15, has been upgraded with significant performance and interoperability enhancements, including 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel speed, that offer greater investment protection. The Brocade 48000 is now interoperable with existing McDATA directors and can be added to existing McDATA SANs.
Brocade also previewed a new category of data center switching solutions, called the Brocade DCX(TM) Backbone, to meet growing requirements for large-scale server virtualization, wider resource-intensive service delivery, adaptive networking, and multiple high-performance network protocols, including Fibre Channel, FCoE, DCE, and iSCSI. The Brocade DCX Backbone will form the core of the Brocade DCF architecture, helping to ensure seamless interoperability across servers, storage, and networking protocols.
Brocade plans to make the Brocade DCX available to customers in the first half of fiscal 2008. Brocade DCX is complementary to and interoperable with existing Brocade directors -- including the Brocade M6140, Brocade MI10k, and the Brocade 48000 -- to extend the data center fabric.
Brocade also revealed plans for server connectivity products to link servers to the Brocade DCF with simplified management in virtualized environments. These products reflect the evolution of Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) to provide higher performance and security in next-generation Intelligent Server Adapters (ISAs).
Brocade said that it has formed industry partnerships to address the critical need for security and encryption in the Brocade DCF. Brocade plans to provide more details about these partnerships in the upcoming months.
Brocade outlined plans to deliver future enhancements to its industry-leading File Area Network (FAN) solutions, with more automated, policy-based enterprise solutions for managing files in the first half of 2008.
Finally, Brocade plans to introduce advanced management software to support more comprehensive, simplified management tools for the data center fabric.

For more information on the Brocade DCF architecture, visit http://www.brocade.com/dcf.

About Brocade

Brocade is the leader in data center solutions that enable companies to connect, manage, and profit from their most vital data. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

SOURCE Brocade - 10/23/2007

CONTACT:
media, Jil Backstrom of Brocade,
+1-720-558-4774, jil.backstrom@brocade.com; or
investors, Jeremy Bridgman,
+1-212-880-5363, jeremy.bridgman@ogilvypr.com, or
Ian Yellin,
+1-415-677-2714, ian.yellin@ogilvypr.com, both of Ogilvy PR
Web site: http://www.brocade.com

Brocade Joins SNIA Green Storage Initiative

2007-11-06T22:32:00Z

Leads Industry Awareness and Education for Energy-Efficient Data Center Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that it is one of the early members of the new Green Storage Initiative launched this week by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). As a member of the Initiative, Brocade will work within the SNIA to promote development and education around energy- efficient storage networking solutions that minimize the environmental impact of data center operations.

"Brocade is dedicated to helping our customers realize greater energy efficiencies in their data centers," said Tom Clark, Brocade representative for the SNIA Green Storage Initiative. "We see the efforts of key industry organizations, such as the SNIA, as important vehicles for making that happen."

Brocade is working to help promote data center efficiencies throughout its entire portfolio of energy-efficient data networking solutions. Compared to competitive offerings, the Brocade 48000 Director generates only a third of the heat, requires less cooling, and leaves more power for other devices in a rack configuration. Additionally, Brocade products support and simplify high- performance data migration across heterogeneous environments and enable cost- effective, centralized information management.

Through its participation in the SNIA Green Storage Initiative, Brocade will work with the SNIA to develop tutorials, white papers, and best-practices educational material for energy-efficient data center storage operations. The Green Storage Initiative will also act as the SNIA liaison to other allied organizations such as The Green Grid -- of which Brocade is also a member -- to develop and promote environmentally friendly data center solutions.

For more information on the SNIA Green Storage Initiative, please visit www.snia.org/green. For more information on Brocade Green activities, please visit www.brocade.com/company_info/green_datacenter.jsp .

About Brocade

Brocade is the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B- wing symbol, SAN Health, and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

SOURCE Brocade - 10/16/2007

CONTACT:
Media Relations, Michelle Lindeman of Brocade,
+1-408-333-5319, michelle.lindeman@brocade.com, or
Investor Relations, Jeremy Bridgman,
+1-408- 333-5184, jeremy.bridgman@ogilvypr.com, or
Ian Yellin,
+1-415-677-2714, ian.yellin@ogilvypr.com, both of Ogilvy PR for Brocade
Web site: http://www.brocade.com
http://www.snia.org/green
http://www.brocade.com/company_info/green_datacenter.jsp

Brocade Family of SAN Infrastructure Solutions

2007-11-06T22:30:00Z

Brocade Family of SAN Infrastructure Solutions

Brocade develops industry-leading Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure solutions that simplify the deployment and management of SANs while providing high Return On Investment (ROI).

SAN Directors and Switches

Brocade award-winning SAN directors and switches provide a flexible, intelligent platform for networking storage. With models ranging from entry-level 8-port fabric switches to 384-port directors with multiple blade options, the Brocade SAN family addresses the needs of small departments and global enterprises alike. 1, 2, and 4 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel solutions are available to support high-performance requirements both for open systems and mainframe operations in mission-critical environments.

SAN Extension and Routing

Brocade SAN extension and routing products meet the full spectrum of requirements to create an optimized, connected infrastructure that enables business continuity and disaster recovery. With support for multiple protocols and both open systems and mainframe environments - as well as a large suite of tested solutions with industry partners -Brocade SAN extension solutions address the widest range of business requirements. In addition, Brocade SAN routing solutions enable consolidation and resource sharing in a highly secure and selective manner.

SAN Application Modules and Gateways

Brocade provides best-in-class platforms for applications and gateways, as well as integrated solutions that help IT organizations derive greater value from their SAN infrastructures. These solutions provide clear advantages whether organizations want to leverage shared storage across more servers using iSCSI, add intelligence to the SAN to boost performance, or perform any-to-any data migrations.

Intelligence in the SAN

The Fabric OS used in Brocade SAN products contains essential fabric services that improve manageability, availability, and scalability. These critical services enable organizations to create a fabric that ensures that information is available when servers and storage devices need it.

Brocade also provides Secure Fabric OS, the most comprehensive SAN security architecture available. Secure Fabric OS enables organizations to control authorization, access, encryption, and authentication for their SAN environments.

SAN Management Software

Brocade offers a broad suite of software products that enable organizations to manage SAN environments more efficiently. These solutions are designed to support the widest range of solutions - from very small SANs up to multiple-fabric SANs where centralized management and automated administration are the only economical solutions.

Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) is designed to help organizations optimize and secure their storage network resources, maximizing availability while driving efficiency and reducing cost. This comprehensive management software enables centralized management of multiprotocol, multivendor, and multisite SANs through a single pane of glass. As a result, organizations can enjoy improved asset tracking, capacity planning, and management effectiveness across both small and large SAN environments.

For further information, please visit http://www.brocade.com/products/silkworm.jsp

Brocade showcasing at TechEd in Barcelona

2007-11-06T22:24:00Z

Brocade, the leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, will offer demonstrations and presentations on data center networking at the Microsoft TechEd IT Forum 2007, which runs from November 12 to 16 in Barcelona (Spain).

Brocade demonstrations at Microsoft TechEd IT Forum will include:

In Exhibit Hall Booth A11 Brocade will showcase its suite of File Area Network (FAN) products which uniquely utilizes Microsoft Windows-based technologies, such as Distributed File System (DFS), Active Directory (AD), and Common Internet File System (CIFS), to help customers better manage their Windows-based file data in heterogeneous, distributed computing environments.
In the Microsoft System Center Partner Pavilion, Brocade will demonstrate the Brocade Access Gateway product, which complements Microsoft’s virtualization strategy by optimizing blade server and server virtualization solutions with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

A Brocade Senior Solutions Architect will also deliver a presentation during the conference:

Friday, November 16 at 1:30 p.m.- George Mobargha, Brocade Senior Solutions Architect, File Area Networking, will present a session entitled, “Virtualization of File Services and Transparent File Management Using Microsoft DFS and Brocade StorageX®.”

For more information on the conference, please visit

www.mseventseurope.com/teched/07/itforum/content/Pages/Default.aspx.

For more information on Brocade's participation at the conference, please visit

http://www.mseventseurope.com/teched/07/itforum/Content/Pages/Sponsors07.aspx#silver

Microsoft TechEd is located in:

Centre Convencions Internacional (CCIB)
Rambla Prim 1-17
08019 Barcelona (Spain)

Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 Improves File Data Manageability, Availability, and Security With Brocade StorageX

2007-11-06T22:17:00Z

One of the Largest Banking Groups in Germany Simplifies Enterprise-Wide File
Data Management Utilizing Brocade FAN Solution for File Virtualization and Disaster Recovery

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822, a member of Sparkasse Finanzgruppe, one of the largest banking groups in Germany, is utilizing Brocade StorageX(R) to dramatically improve the manageability, availability, and security of file data across its enterprise.

Since 2005, Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 has relied on two mirrored data centers to manage the growth of its file-based data as well as to provide a reliable disaster recovery strategy. Following this approach, the bank was able to achieve the security levels required by German compliance regulations. However, the bank still faced the challenge of managing its growing amounts of file data more efficiently and cost-effectively. After evaluating various options, Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 realized that it would need an enterprise-wide file virtualization and management solution to improve the administration of its file data. As a result, Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 decided to implement Brocade StorageX, a File Area Network (FAN) solution.

"Brocade StorageX has solved all major challenges in both the design and mirroring of our two data centers," said Joachim Tjaden, System Administrator at Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822. "By virtualizing the data paths, Brocade StorageX has enabled access security in connection with our Windows NT4 clients. In 2005, we installed our second data center and Brocade StorageX now mirrors access rights to that data center."

Brocade StorageX is an open software-based management solution for file data. The solution leverages and extends Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) as a native service. With the combination of Brocade StorageX and Microsoft DFS, Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 has been able to create an open global namespace. This flexible layer separates the physical and the logical view on the file paths. Brocade StorageX virtualization capabilities, in combination with the product's automated migration and consolidation policies, enable the bank's IT administrators to transparently move files to different storage devices without impacting user or application access. In addition, the bank utilizes the product's disaster recovery policies to seamlessly fail over users in the event of a server failure or outage.

"Brocade StorageX has enabled Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 to manage its file data more efficiently and cost-effectively while decreasing downtime in the event of an outage or a disaster," concluded Tjaden. "In addition, we have reduced the time and effort required to manage our file data while dramatically increasing the overall security and availability of that data."

About Brocade

Brocade is the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Brocade, the Brocade B-wing logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-weave symbol, SAN Health, and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

SOURCE Brocade - 09/24/2007

CONTACT:
media relations, Kathryn Craig,
+1-832-230-2249, kcraig@brocade.com, or
investor relations, Yin Cantor,
+1-408-333-5184, ycantor@brocade.com,
both of Brocade; or
Ian Yellin of Ogilvy PR,
+1-415-677-2714, ian.yellin@ogilvypr.com, for Brocade
Web site: http://www.brocade.com

Brocade Data Center Solutions Featured in Microsoft Technology Centers Worldwide

2007-11-06T22:12:00Z

Microsoft Demonstrates Evolving Data Center Infrastructures with Industry-Leading Brocade SAN, FAN, and Server Connectivity Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD - News), a leader in data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that it has been selected to showcase and demonstrate its industry-leading data center solutions at Microsoft Technology Centers (MTCs) worldwide. MTCs provide enterprise customers with the opportunity to evaluate leading-edge and customized technology solutions from Microsoft and other leading vendors before deploying the solutions in their own environments.

"Today's enterprises require their data centers to be available 24x7, and many turn to Brocade solutions to provide the reliability, scalability, and ease of management required to power mission-critical data center environments," said Jens Moberg, Corporate Vice President of the U.S. Enterprise Partner Group, Microsoft. "By hosting Brocade products in our data centers, the Microsoft Technology Centers enable our customers to evaluate solutions based on Brocade and Microsoft technologies as they make preparations to evolve and build out their next-generation data centers."

MTCs are state-of-the-art facilities staffed by technology experts and supported by industry leaders to help customers envision, architect, and demonstrate Microsoft and partner solutions to solve their business problems. MTCs provide three types of offerings-strategy briefings, architecture design sessions, and proof-of-concept workshops-each of which focuses on a different stage of a customer's search for a solution.

"The Microsoft Technology Centers provide Brocade a valuable opportunity to demonstrate how data centers will evolve in customized, real-world environments," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. "Brocade is enabling data centers of all sizes and helping our customers solve the challenges of unprecedented data growth; data security and protection; and data center efficiency."

The Brocade suite of Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure and server connectivity solutions includes industry-leading switches, directors, routers, embedded switches for blade servers, fabric-based applications, and Host Bust Adaptors (HBAs), as well as management applications and utilities to centralize data management. Brocade SAN and server connectivity solutions featured in the MTCs include the Brocade 48000 Director, the Brocade Fibre Channel (FC) HBA, and Brocade Access Gateway. Brocade FC SAN products support standards-based N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), complementing Microsoft's virtualization strategy by optimizing blade server and server virtualization solutions with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Brocade SAN and server connectivity products help customers save costs through high performance, high density, and lower power consumption. Since the inception of the Microsoft Storage Partner Program, Brocade has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that Brocade SAN infrastructure and server connectivity solutions support Windows environments.

Additionally, the entire Brocade File Area Network (FAN) suite of products, including Brocade StorageX®, uniquely utilizes Microsoft Windows-based technologies, such as Distributed File System (DFS), Active Directory (AD), and Common Internet File Services (CIFS), to help customers better manage their Windows-based file data enterprise-wide. The Brocade suite of FAN solutions helps customers optimize server and storage assets, increase operational flexibility, improve data availability, and significantly reduce overall storage costs in heterogeneous, distributed computing environments. The solutions provide IT administrators with policies for automating many file data management tasks, including data tiering; migration and consolidation replication, and failover.

About Brocade

Microsoft Upgrades Customer Test Center with Brocade Solutions

2007-11-06T22:07:00Z

Microsoft Extends Its Partnership with Brocade and Responds to Customer Demands by Deploying Brocade SAN Directors, Switches, and Management Systems at Its Enterprise Engineering Center

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD - News), a leader in data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center has enhanced its Storage Area Network (SAN) environment with Brocade systems in response to the constantly changing needs of Fortune 1000 customers evaluating Microsoft products at the Enterprise Engineering Center.

Located on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus, the Enterprise Engineering Center implemented 4 Gbit/sec Brocade 48000 Directors, SAN switches, and Fabric Manager software to enable a seamless and stable SAN environment for customers to simulate how new Microsoft solutions operate in real-world conditions. The Enterprise Engineering Center hosts customers who are testing and validating planned upgrades, migrations, or deployments of Microsoft's next-generation enterprise software and solutions. With more than 500 servers and nearly 600 terabytes of SAN storage, the Enterprise Engineering Center is one of the largest customer validation and test labs in the world. The Brocade infrastructure allows the Enterprise Engineering Center to rapidly configure and isolate customers' product tests on a single physical SAN fabric, ensuring privacy and greatly reducing the center's management requirements.

"We are excited to partner with Brocade and have their storage solutions serve a key role in the Enterprise Engineering Center," said Bill Laing, general manager of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft Corporation. "Partners like Brocade play a key role in our ability to host many of the world's leading corporations in order for them to test our next-generation solutions as well as validate our product vision."

Complete Solutions for High-End Development

Brocade is the industry-leader in robust, enterprise-class SANs and has partnered with the Enterprise Engineering Center since the center's creation in 2002. The Enterprise Engineering Center has deployed a pair of Brocade 48000 Directors on its SAN to provide customers with the highest bandwidth and most power-efficient switching solution available. The platforms form the core of a 600-port infrastructure with dual fabrics for redundancy and load balancing, and support 600 terabytes of storage. Moreover, the center achieves extremely fast core-to-edge throughput by using Brocade 4900 and 4100 Switches to link the various storage platforms.

The Brocade solution enables the Enterprise Engineering Center to safeguard the terabytes of live data and corporate Active Directory structures entrusted to Microsoft during test engagements. Utilizing the capabilities of Brocade Fabric OS®, Microsoft can create virtual domains that segregate each customer's tests to provide security during engagements, which often last for weeks. Customers can even change zoning and other parameters during tests without impacting the ongoing evaluations of other companies.

"Traditionally we had to construct dedicated SAN fabrics to assure each customer's security, which was laborious and time-consuming," said Scott Napolitan, group manager, Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center. "With the Brocade technology, our engagement engineers can now tailor fabric environments for each customer rapidly and easily. We have up to five customer engagements on one physical network, enabling them to evaluate our products in a more time-efficient manner."

The Brocade solution further improves the center's productivity through the Brocade Fabric Manager application. Administrators can create, monitor, and dynamically provision multiple virtual SAN domains with any onsite devices without manually reconfiguring cables. From a central console, they can even assign ports on any attached device for customers' exclusive use, enabling multiple companies to share a single platform.

About Brocade

Brocade is a leading provider of data center networking solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Mohawk Industries: Flooring Manufacturer Links Hundreds of Locations Using Branch Office Solution

2007-07-30T15:19:00Z

http://www.brocade.com/san/pdf/success_stories/Mohawk_WinServ_Case_Study_Final.pdf

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000303

Dyer, Riddle, Mills & Precourt: Engineering Firm Improves File Management and Saves Money with Branch Office Solution

2007-07-30T15:15:00Z

http://www.brocade.com/san/pdf/success_stories/DRMP_WinServ_Case_Study_Final.pdf

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000436

AmeriQuest: Transportation Services Company Unites Facilities Using Branch Office IT Solution

2007-07-30T15:13:00Z

http://www.brocade.com/san/pdf/success_stories/AmeriQuest_WinServ_Case_Study_Final.pdf

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000309

DRMP Streamlines Customer Service at Its Remote Offices Using Brocade File Area Network Solutions

2007-07-27T17:49:00Z

Leading Engineering Firm Greatly Accelerates Enterprise-Wide Collaborations and Backups with Brocade WAFS and Brocade StorageX

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced that Dyer, Riddle, Mills & Precourt, Inc. (DRMP), ranked as one of the Top 500 Design Firms in the U.S. by Engineering News-Record, is accelerating its workflow, operations, and customer service for large retail, theme parks, and government clients with Brocade File Area Network (FAN) solutions. Using Brocade Wide Area File Services (WAFS), DRMP engineering and technical staff -- in seven of its 19 sites throughout Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- can now collaborate in real time on large, centrally located Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files as quickly as if the data were local. By leveraging the Brocade FAN architecture, DRMP has the flexibility to centralize data for its remaining sites non-disruptively and at the company's convenience. In advance of deploying Brocade WAFS, DRMP implemented Brocade StorageX(R) to migrate files automatically from remote sites to its headquarters, preserving its data securely and cost-effectively.

By allowing DRMP to maintain engineering and architectural files at its Orlando headquarters as remote staff work on them, the combined Brocade WAFS and Brocade StorageX solution enables the 500+-employee firm to centrally manage, access, and migrate critical data-eliminating the expense and inconvenience of tape backup systems at its remote offices. "Brocade WAFS lets engineers at our remote locations access and share files as if everyone were all in one place. This makes DRMP better able to meet the tight deadlines our customers demand," said Bill Nance, IT Manager, DRMP. "By providing LAN-like access to files stored in Orlando, we have improved efficiencies as well as reduced IT costs by centrally managing remote file services."

A "Branch-Office-in-a-Box" Solution

DRMP turned to Brocade to bolster productivity among its engineers, who share files as large as 100 megabytes across the company's Wide Area Network (WAN). "Opening a CAD file often required 20 minutes and network latency was an issue," said Nance. "But simply copying files to local servers meant that users worked on copies of the same documents, which made version-control a challenge."

DRMP also labored to back up files. At its larger sites, the firm had to invest in costly storage servers, whereas at other offices, users backed up their files onto tapes and mailed the tapes to Orlando, which was a laborious and error-prone process.

To improve its workflow, DRMP needed, in Nance's words, "a branch-office- in-a-box" solution that facilitated efficient teamwork regardless of where employees worked and provided a simple, cost-effective means to centrally back up files. After considering products from various vendors, the firm chose Brocade solutions because of their proven performance and feature set. "Brocade WAFS was the most complete branch-office-in-a-box solution available," said Nance. "In addition to high-speed file caching, the system lets us centrally control such services as printing, DHCP, DNS, and domain authentication at our remote facilities."

In July 2006, DRMP deployed a Brocade WAFS core appliance at its Orlando facility and Brocade WAFS edge devices at the first three of its remote offices. The solution's advanced file caching at the sites dramatically accelerated remote file reads and writes. "Brocade WAFS sped up remote file access, so much so that some employees literally did not believe they were working on designs that were actually in Orlando," Nance added. "Our staff now works much more effectively while consolidating backups in our data center. We also have gained complete version control over every file."

To implement its Brocade WAFS solution, DRMP relied on Brocade StorageX to migrate data from its remote offices to its data center, enabling it to repurpose local storage servers as it deployed the Brocade WAFS edge devices. Moreover, administrators plan to continue using Brocade StorageX to routinely replicate files residing on file servers at smaller remote sites (where Brocade WAFS edge devices will not be deployed) to the central data center to ensure the availability of designs and other data.

"The Brocade WAFS and Brocade StorageX combination is a leading file services solution set that has certainly proved its worth," said Nance. "Brocade has provided DRMP with an economical, function-rich file area network solution throughout our enterprise. By gaining control over our vital file services, we have leveraged our IT resources and have become a more productive and responsive company."

About Brocade

NOTE: Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, Secure Fabric OS, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.

SOURCE Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. - 03/27/2007

CONTACT:
Media Relations, Kathryn Craig, Investor Relations of Brocade,
+1-832-230-2249, or kcraig@brocade.com; or
Shirley Stacy, +1-408-333-5752, or sstacy@brocade.com, or
Mat Small, +1-415-365-0398, or mat.small@bitepr.com, both of Bite PR, for Brocade

Web site: http://www.brocade.com

Brocade Joins Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance

2007-05-18T18:24:00Z

Alliance Creates Closer Relationship With Microsoft, Improves Interoperability and Performance for End Users

SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 17, 2007 — Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD), a leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today announced it has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance, a community of software and hardware vendors working to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems. Brocade has worked closely with Microsoft since the inception of the Microsoft Storage Partner Program in 2002 and believes that joining the Interop Vendor Alliance will further its efforts to help ensure that Brocade technologies and solutions are optimized for performance in customers’ multivendor environments.

Microsoft technologies and solutions are deployed in the vast majority of today’s IT infrastructures. By participating in the Interop Vendor Alliance, Brocade will continue to pursue Storage Area Network (SAN) and File Area Network (FAN) technologies and solutions that are integrated and interoperable with Microsoft technologies for optimum performance. Products will be tested in a multivendor environment, making it easier to ensure interoperability is achieved. Joining the alliance will also allow Brocade to publish joint evidence on how the companies are addressing interoperability.

“Brocade is a welcome addition to the Interop Vendor Alliance,” said Bruce Burns, senior director, Strategic Relations, Microsoft. “Brocade has always worked closely with Microsoft, and we believe an even tighter integration will provide our mutual customers with highly optimized solutions for improving and streamlining data management in their environments.”

“Many of today’s IT organizations rely on Brocade SAN and FAN solutions and associated services offerings to ensure that their enterprise-wide data is stored securely and readily accessible,” said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade’s Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “The ability to work even more closely with Microsoft and other vendors to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems will lead to even more secure and efficient IT implementations as well as overall improved IT systems performance for our mutual customers.”

Brocade also today announced the renewal of its Gold Certified Partnership status with Microsoft. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are the elite Microsoft business partners that earn the very highest customer endorsement and are required to meet rigorous requirements for certification and expertise. Brocade has reached the status of Gold Certified Partner for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions by demonstrating increased levels of developer certification and deep real-world experience, and by providing completed customer reference projects that were independently verified by Microsoft.

About Brocade

About the Interop Vendor Alliance

The Interop Vendor Alliance is designed to better connect people, data, and diverse systems through enhanced interoperability with Microsoft technology. The organization serves as a collaborative forum for developing and sharing common technology models, facilitates scenario-based testing of multivendor solutions, and works to communicate additional best practices to users. Additional information about the Interop Vendor Alliance can be found at http://www.interopvendoralliance.com.