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StorageTek AND BROCADE TEAM UP

Brocade Communications Systems Inc (Brocade), one of the world's leading providers of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), and StorageTek, a storage services and solutions expert, announced recently that the companies are working together to deliver professional services, break-fix service and support, and SAN education to their mutual SAN customers worldwide. Through the expansion of the relationship between the two companies, Brocade and StorageTek customers will gain a single point of contact for services, support, and education for their entire storage and networking infrastructure through StorageTek.

StorageTek will offer maintenance support on all Brocade products, and provide SAN and other professional services to Brocade SAN customers. In addition, StorageTek will sell Brocade education and training to current and prospective customers. StorageTek will offer the maintenance services under its Multi-vendor Technical Support Services program and deliver it through its global field service force. To facilitate delivery of this level of qualified heterogeneous service and support, StorageTek has become a Brocade Qualified Support Partner (QSP). Brocade QSPs are able to provide comprehensive service and support to Brocade storage networking customers. StorageTek Global Service offerings center around four areas of competency: customer and operations support, network interoperability and implementation services, storage infrastructure architecture and management, and business continuity and disaster recovery.

"StorageTek is in an ideal position to extend its global service and maintenance offerings to encompass the Brocade family of products," said Angel Garcia, StorageTek vice president of Global Services. "Our ability to provide industry leading SAN and Storage Architecture offerings through a single interface will simplify service delivery from the perspective of Brocade customers."

"We are working closely with StorageTek to help provide the multi-vendor service and support required as companies grow their enterprise SANs. StorageTek's qualified personnel give our customers access to a select group of professionals with extensive training in SAN analysis, design, implementation, and management to provide comprehensive consulting, management, support, and education as customers deploy and grow their large-scale SAN deployments," said Jay Kidd, Brocade vice president of Product Marketing.

About the Brocade Qualified Support Partner Program

Brocade Qualified Support Partners (QSPs) are leading systems integrators, resellers, OEMs, and third-party service providers that are authorized by Brocade to service Brocade products. Brocade QSPs are able to provide comprehensive service and support to Brocade storage networking customers. Brocade QSPs engage in a cooperative support agreement with Brocade and have documented case flows, SLAs, and escalation paths for service and support issues. Each QSP ensures that key support engineers are Brocade-certified and maintains a Brocade-approved SAN test lab to handle customer needs responsively and provide spare parts inventory for onsite repair and replacement. For more information on the program visit www.brocade.com/partners/qualified--support--partners.jhtml.

About StorageTek

StorageTek, a $2 billion worldwide company with headquarters in Louisville, CO, delivers a broad range of storage solutions for digitized data. StorageTek solutions are easy to manage and allow universal access to data across servers, media types and storage networks. StorageTek is the innovator and global leader in virtual storage solutions for tape automation, disk storage systems and storage networking. Because of StorageTek, customers can manage and leverage their digital assets as their businesses grow and can maximize IT productivity to ensure enterprise-class business continuity. For more information, see www.storagetek.com, or call 1-800-786-7835.

About Brocade Communications Systems Inc

Brocade offers one of the industry's leading intelligent platforms for networking storage. Many of 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 Web site at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Contact: Shirley Stacy, 408-487-5752, sstacey@brocade.com.