Storage:

McDATA's 2 Gb/s Directors/Switches Available Through Hitachi

McDATA Corporation, a worldwide leader in open storage networking solutions, announced that its 2Gb/s Intrepid 6000 Series Director and Sphereon 3000 Series Fabric Switches will be made generally available today through Hitachi Data Systems, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. McDATA's 2Gb/s family of Directors and Switches are designed to support the unique demands of enterprise storage applications while enabling unrivalled flexibility for small-to-medium size customers looking to deploy cost-effective storage networking solutions. McDATA's Intrepid FICON- and Fibre Channel-enabled Director will be made available through a distribution agreement that also includes McDATA's entire core-to-edge family of 2Gb/s products, including its Sphereon 3000 Series 16- and 32-port Fabric Switches, as well as McDATA's capacity-on-demand Flexport Technology.

"Enterprises today require products that lead the industry in high availability, scalability and investment protection," said Don McNicoll, senior director, product marketing, Hitachi Data Systems. "McDATA's best-in-class Director with Hitachi Freedom Storage systems offers unparalleled investment protection and support of multiple protocols, including FICON. McDATA's Fabric Switches provide the high availability products in their class and bring to the mid-range market many attributes of McDATA's Directors."

"Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA each have a long-standing commitment to the delivery of best-in-class storage solutions," said Dick Search, vice president of marketing for McDATA. "McDATA's 2Gb/s high availability product line combined with Hitachi Freedom Storage, enables Hitachi Data System's customers to meet, exceed and build on the storage requirements they have today but the storage requirements they will have tomorrow. Customers get peace of mind that their investment today will work with the technologies of tomorrow, and they are assured they are receiving the industry's highest standard of data availability."

The McDATA Intrepid Director surpasses all competitor offerings in terms of flexibility with its ability to handle both mainframe (FICON) and open systems (Fibre Channel) data traffic, as well common Extendable Open Network (EON) architecture that supports upgrades to emerging technologies such as 10Gb/s, iSCSI, FCIP and InfiniBand. The McDATA Sphereon 3000 Series Fabric Switches are the only mid-range switches in the industry built on Director-class technology -- offering optimal scalability, management and availability.

Hitachi's worldwide distribution of McDATA's full family of 2Gb/s products also marks the availability of McDATA's Flexport Technology. McDATA's Flexport Technology allows customers to add ports on an "as needed" basis and without disruption. For example, McDATA's Sphereon 3216 Fabric Switch can be configured as an 8-port model with the ability to expand to 16 ports without service interruption. The Sphereon 3232 Fabric Switch can be configured in 16-, 24-, and 32-port increments and McDATA's Director is upgradeable in increments of 4 ports, delivering to customers industry-leading capacity on demand.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems, one of the fastest growing enterprise storage providers, is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, Japan's largest electronics company, HDS is committed to providing the storage infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600 employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business through direct sales and resellers in the public and private sectors in 170 countries on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi Ltd

Hitachi Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales of 7,993.7 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi Ltd, please visit Hitachi's Web site at global.hitachi.com.

About McDATA

McDATA is a worldwide leader in open storage networking solutions and provides highly available, scalable and centrally managed storage area networks (SANs) that address enterprise-wide storage problems. McDATA's core-to-edge enterprise SAN solutions improve the reliability and availability of data to simplify SAN management and reduce the total cost of ownership. McDATA extensively pre-tests its solutions to provide IT organizations with the comprehensive tools, methodologies and support essential to robust SAN implementation. McDATA distributes its products through its OEMs, network of resellers and Elite Solution Partners. McDATA and the McDATA logo are registered trademarks of McDATA Corporation.

Contact JPR Communications, Joe Austin, 818-386-0403, joea@jprcom.com.