Features - Storage Innovations:

McDATA DEMONSTRATES OpenTrunking AND SANtegrity ZONING

McDATA Corporation, a worldwide leader in open, ultra-high availability storage networking solutions, has announced at CeBIT 2003 an evolution to a higher intelligence in storage networking. Starting now, McDATA has made available to customers two new technology advancements that greatly increase the performance and security of storage networks. McDATA's OpenTrunking and hardware-enforced SANtegrity Zoning increase the intelligence already found in McDATA storage networking solutions.

"IT managers everywhere are presented with the recurring demands to increase application performance, and at the same time, reduce costs. As SAN demands continue to increase it is essential that we deliver more functionality and intelligence to the customer, while mitigating costs and protecting prior investments," said Mike Gustafson, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for McDATA. "The availability of OpenTrunking and SANtegrity Zoning delivers a greater level of intelligence into McDATA's current family of storage networking solutions."

As customers are faced with constantly growing storage requirements, their storage networks can become more complex. OpenTrunking simplifies management, optimises storage network performance and provides applications faster access to data, by:

• Monitoring traffic to detect congestion;
• Automatically balancing traffic across the network, optimising existing resources;
• Supporting new and existing McDATA products, as well as working with competitor's products, significantly protecting existing investments customers have made in SAN equipment.

While OpenTrunking improves the performance of large SANs, SANtegrity Zoning is the latest development in McDATA's SAN Security Suite. SANtegrity Zoning locks down a company's fabric, preventing security threats through hardware-enforced zoning. SANtegrity Zoning extends McDATA's leadership in storage networking security, which today includes SANtegrity Binding and SANtegrity Secure Management Zone.

McDATA's SANtegrity Security Suite is a purpose-built security solution for storage networks, providing customers with:

• Reduced business risk through improved storage network integrity;
• Increased data security within the SAN;
• Improved security of SAN management across LANs and WANs.

Customers can benefit from both OpenTrunking and SANtegrity Zoning through a seamless upgrade made possible by McDATA's HotCAT Technology. No other SAN vendor can rival McDATA in its ability to ensure its customers' investments are protected or deliver to those customers the level of ultra-high availability common to McDATA storage networks.

At CeBIT 2003, McDATA will also demonstrate in its booth (Hall 1, Stand 6e2, Booth A13-14) the next advancement of its SANtegrity Security Suite, SANtegrity Authentication and the management of advanced storage networking security features through McDATA's SANavigator network management software platform. SANtegrity Authentication builds intelligence into the Fabric and enables customers to significantly increase the security of their storage networks.

McDATA will also show an FCIP blade for its Intrepid 6000 Series Directors. By utilising bladed technology, McDATA significantly protects the investment companies have made in McDATA storage networks and enables seamless support of emerging technologies.

About McDATA

McDATA is a worldwide leader in open, ultra-high availability 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.

Contact: Linda Dellett, or Kevin Mammel, 303-460-4474, investor_relations@mcdata.com, bpth of McDATA Corporation.