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Akara Qualifies as McDATA OPENready Solution Partner

Akara Corporation, a leading developer of Storage over SONET extension solutions with the lowest MByte per mile cost across the MAN/WAN, and McDATA Corporation, a worldwide leader in open, ultra-high availability storage networking solutions, have announced that Akara has achieved the highest level of certification as a McDATA OPENready High-Availability Solution Partner. Akara's OUSP 2000 storage extension device has achieved high-availability, director-level qualification with McDATA's Intrepid Directors (6064), with testing conducted at McDATA's state-of-the-art System Integration Lab. This new level of certification builds on Akara's current interoperability with McDATA's Sphereon 3000 Series Fabric Switches (3232 and 3216) within the OPENready Interoperability Program. Enterprise customers using Akara's OUSP storage extension device within McDATA's Extendable Open Network (EON) Architecture can extend their SANs across the MAN/WAN with minimal investment and improved business continuance capabilities.

"Akara realizes that customers need high-performance, low-risk solutions to SAN extension, and rely on companies such as Akara and McDATA to offer solutions that protect their network investments," said Ed Ogonek, CEO of Akara. "Today's announcement reflects our commitment to partner with leading SAN vendors such as McDATA to provide proven and affordable solutions for storage extension and business continuance. Our customers, distributors, system integrators and resellers can now deploy solutions from vendors they trust and are guaranteed interoperability and high performance while transporting mission-critical data over greater distances."

Akara is the only provider of a Storage over SONET platform that enables enterprises to leverage existing carrier networks for reliable, lowest cost/MByte storage extension. Akara's OUSP multiplexes data center protocols such as FC, FICON, ESCON and GbE directly into flexible SONET payloads to extend enterprises' business continuance applications over existing SONET/SDH, dark fiber or DWDM networks. This customer-premise device is "enterprise-ready" with OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 connectivity, enabling the majority of enterprises to easily connect their storage networks to carriers' ubiquitous SONET services for high-performance, cost-effective extended storage networking. With Akara's OUSP, enterprises can create multiple FC links over a single metro-DWDM wavelength or carrier-leased SONET circuit.

"We are pleased to have Akara become a McDATA OPENready High Availability Solution Partner," said Peter Dougherty, vice president of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at McDATA. "Both companies are committed to improving the reliability and availability of data for SAN extension, while reducing the total cost of ownership. As a result of our collaboration, customers with critical business continuance requirements can gain access to best-of-breed technologies with the assurance of interoperability."

About Akara

Akara, a Storage over SONET market leader, is the only equipment supplier with a singular focus on extending business continuance applications between data centers with the lowest MByte per mile cost across existing MAN/WAN networks. Akara's solutions significantly reduces operational and capital expense by leveraging the existing SONET/SDH, dark fiber or DWDM networks, and ensures the performance of Fibre Channel, ESCON, FICON and Gigabit Ethernet in geographically dispersed business continuance applications. Akara has offices in Ottawa, Ontario and Dallas, Texas. Visit Akara online at www.akara.com.

Contact: Elaine Bird of Akara, 613-270-9500x5022, ebird@akara.com.