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BANK OF CHINA IMPLEMENTS BROCADE STORAGE AREA NETWORK

Brocade Communications Systems Inc (Brocade), a leading provider of infrastructure for Storage Area Networks (SANs), recently announced that the Bank of China (BOC) has chosen to move from direct-attached storage to Brocade SAN infrastructure to achieve improved storage system stability, performance, and availability while significantly reducing downtime and cost of administration. BOC has chosen a wide range of Brocade products, including the Brocade SilkWorm 12000 and SilkWorm 3800 Fabric Switches, as the foundation of BOC data centers and the BOC International Credit Card Center.

Part of the Fortune 500 since 1989, BOC is the second largest banking and financial services organization in the People's Republic of China. Through a large nationwide network, BOC provides a comprehensive range of financial services from retail, corporate, and investment banking to insurance, securities custody, and clearings, in both the domestic and global markets. Prior to implementing the Brocade SAN environment, BOC incurred significant system downtime. Now, with Brocade SAN infrastructure, the BOC IT team is able to more easily expand their storage environment and add storage capacity without downtime.

"BOC started planning for the upgrade of its storage systems in early 2002. Prior to the SAN implementation, we were concerned about our system's stability and security. After researching a wide variety of SAN technologies and solutions, Brocade emerged as the best choice based on its industry leadership, robust intelligent features, and history of storage networking expertise," said Zhu Shu, Assistant General Manager, Information and Technology Department, Bank of China. "I have confidence in Brocade -- their solutions are widely compatible and easily upgradeable."

"The BOC implementation is a significant win for Brocade," said Jay Kidd, Brocade vice president of Product Marketing. "BOC joins the Brocade global customer family representing 2.3 million Fibre Channel fabric ports shipped to date. We are pleased that with Brocade, BOC has been able to increase information availability and security to a higher level and increase the return on its IT investment."

About Bank of China

Established in 1912, Bank of China is the oldest bank in China. It has been ranked one of the world's top banks in terms of core capital by The Banker. For 90 years, Bank of China has played an important role in promoting China's economic and social progress through its active involvement in the country's international trade and financial activities. Since 1992 the bank has been awarded "The Best Bank in China" for nine times by Euromoney magazine, the latest being in 2002. Moreover, Bank of China has been included in the Fortune Global 500 for 13 consecutive years.