Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

INTRIA-HP SELECTS BROCADE AND NORTEL FOR NETWORK SOLUTION

Brocade Communications Systems Inc, one of the world's leading providers of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Nortel Networks, a global leader in optical networking for storage connectivity, have announced that INTRIA-HP, a premier IT outsourcing services provider specializing in systems operations and application and Web management, has selected Brocade storage networking infrastructure and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) multiservice platform from Nortel Networks.

These technologies function as the foundation for INTRIA-HP's internetworked SAN, which spans two data centers over a distance of 100 kilometers. INTRIA-HP deployed the optically connected SAN to improve the availability and reliability of client e-mail services and streamline data backup and restore to shorten the disaster recovery process and provide true high availability and business continuance. INTRIA-HP manages systems that process over five billion online transactions annually, with some of the highest service levels in the industry.

Microsoft Exchange e-mail systems have become an increasingly mission-critical communications component for INTRIA-HP's clients and the company's outsourcing services. As a result, INTRIA-HP needed a technology that could significantly speed up server restoration times to help increase application performance. By networking servers and storage through a SAN, INTRIA-HP was able to revitalize its recovery infrastructure and automate its backup and recovery process to lower storage support costs. INTRIA-HP deployed an extended SAN based on Brocade SilkWorm fabric switches and Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 5200 DWDM equipment, connecting production and recovery servers with Hewlett-Packard Surestore 2/40 tape libraries.

"Considering its presence as the most prevalent fabric switch vendor in the marketplace, Brocade was a natural choice," said Bruce Rich, vice president of Desktop and Utility Services at INTRIA-HP. "Throughout the entire SAN implementation, Brocade provided an excellent level of service. We gained valuable experience and validated the capabilities of the Brocade and Nortel technologies. Because most of the hardware was already in place, there was only minimal investment necessary to leverage the SAN at each of our data centers."

INTRIA-HP provides IT services, including processing of on-line financial transactions, to enterprise customers. Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 5200 equipment provides native internetworking of Fibre Channel and ESCON SANs at Gigabit speeds, enabling real time synchronous mirroring of high-performance transactional systems over long distances without noticeable impact on the customer application. Using Brocade SAN infrastructure, companies can network servers with storage devices through a storage area network, allowing companies to optimize asset utilization, increase productivity, increase availability, and significantly reduce the total cost of ownership of their storage environments.

"We are pleased that the combination of Brocade SAN infrastructure and Nortel Networks DWDM equipment has enabled INTRIA-HP to enhance its business continuance operations while improving the reliability and performance of its clients' vital e-mail applications," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade Chief Marketing Officer. "By teaming with Nortel Networks, we are able to help simplify the internetworking of SANs across optical infrastructure, while helping customers optimize SAN manageability and performance across the metro area."

"Nortel Networks is absolutely committed to delivering best-in-class solutions that address the storage connectivity needs of our enterprise customers", said Brian McFadden, president, Optical Networks, Nortel Networks. "Nortel Networks has deployed metro DWDM storage connectivity solutions to assist many of the top financial institutions globally enabling business continuity for their mission-critical financial transactions. We are pleased to work with Brocade enabling INTRIA-HP to extend high-performance 'always-on' services to their broad range of clients."

Brocade and Nortel Networks have completed extensive interoperability testing between Nortel Networks family of metro DWDM products and the complete line of Brocade intelligent fabric switches, including the recently announced 2 Gigabit per Second Brocade SilkWorm 3200, SilkWorm 3800, and SilkWorm 12000. The companies have worked closely together to create joint reference architectures to help speed the deployment of internetworked SANs and optical infrastructure.

About INTRIA-HP

INTRIA-HP is an international joint venture formed in 1998 between The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce of Toronto, Canada and Hewlett-Packard based in Palo Alto, California. INTRIA-HP is a premier IT outsourcing services provider empowering businesses with the experience, expertise and innovation in planning, managing, optimizing and enhancing their information technology operations and investments. Advancing to meet client demands and exceed expectations, INTRIA-HP delivers superior IT outsourcing relationships combined with solid business results. INTRIA-HP's experience extends across industries, business processes and systems with clients such as General Motors, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Halliburton Energy, Delphi Automotive and Celanese Chemicals. www.INTRIA-HP.com.

About Brocade Communications Systems Inc

Brocade offers one of the industry's leading intelligent platforms 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 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.

About Nortel Networks

Nortel Networks is an industry leader in the transport of SAN traffic across the metro, carrying more than 200 petabits of mission-critical traffic per day. As recently as two years ago, the entire Internet globally carried only 30 to 40 petabits per month. A recent report from IDC estimated that Nortel Networks had approximately 80 percent of the of optical storage connectivity market for 2001.

Nortel Networks is an industry leader and innovator focused on transforming how the world communicates and exchanges information. The company is supplying its service provider and enterprise customers with communications technology and infrastructure to enable value-added IP data, voice and multimedia services spanning Metro and Enterprise Networks, Wireless Networks and Optical Long Haul Networks. As a global company, Nortel Networks does business in more than 150 countries. More information about Nortel Networks can be found on the Web at www.nortelnetworks.com.

Contact: Bridget Braxton of Nortel Networks, 972-685-8813, or bbraxton@nortelnetworks.com.