Features - Storage Innovations:

NEW BROCADE SilkWorm FEATURES NOW AVAILABLE FROM StorageTek

Brocade Communications Systems Inc (Brocade), a leading provider of infrastructure for Storage Area Networks (SANs), and StorageTek, a storage services and solutions expert, have announced that new features for the Brocade SilkWorm 12000 Director -- enabled through the Brocade Fabric Operating Environment software -- are available worldwide through StorageTek.

The new Brocade Fabric Operating Environment, made available through OEM partners earlier this year, provides significant enhancements, including the industry's first fabric-based security, centralized fabric management, and enhanced high availability. In addition, the new software version includes support for FICON connectivity on the SilkWorm 12000 Director.

New capabilities based on the Brocade Fabric Operating Environment include:

• Advanced SAN Security through the Brocade Secure Fabric Operating System (Secure Fabric OS), the industry's only SAN security product that offers centralized management of SAN security policies. Secure Fabric OS protects the SAN by using some of the strongest enterpriseclass security methods available, including digital certificates and digital signatures, multiple levels of password protection, encryption of management information such as passwords, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based authentication, and 1024-bit encryption of the administration passwords.
• Simplified Management through Fabric Manager, the Brocade fabric management software that configures, monitors, provisions, and manages multiple switches, SANs, and HBAs from a single console. The latest release, Fabric Manager 4.0, includes new features such as integrated HBA management, advanced security management, and call home capabilities.
• Enhanced High Availability for non-disruptive firmware activation and enhanced failover capabilities.
• FICON Ready, Multi-Protocol Support to meet customer demand for simplified fabric switch solutions for both FICON and open systems environments. By supporting these protocols simultaneously, Brocade's SilkWorm 12000 Director enables companies to lower costs and improve operational efficiencies by merging their mainframe and open systems networks. Teamed with StorageTek's newly FICON-enabled T9840B tape drive, the solution allows enterprises to cost-effectively consolidate their tape network infrastructure. StorageTek has targeted FICON-ready, multi-protocol support for September availability.

"StorageTek is excited to offer these new capabilities to our customers," said Jill Kenney, StorageTek corporate vice president, Worldwide Marketing and Corporate Strategy. "Brocade's new level of networked storage infrastructure will provide StorageTek customers with enhanced management and security capabilities and the ideal foundation for StorageTek's end-to-end solutions and Information Lifecycle Management vision. This is another example of how we are raising StorageTek's stature with our ability to assess, design, and test SAN environments."

"We are pleased to work with StorageTek to continue to deliver enhanced high availability, simplified management, and policy-based SAN security to our mutual customers worldwide," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of Marketing. "We understand that customers are looking to assure the configuration integrity of their SANs and unify fabric management. We developed the Brocade Fabric Operating Environment to enable IT administrators to further protect their data and simplify management of their Brocade fabrics."

StorageTek sells and supports the complete Brocade SilkWorm product family, from entry to enterprise. As a Brocade Qualified Support Partner, StorageTek also offers maintenance support on all Brocade products and provides SAN and other professional services to customers under its Multi-Vendor Technical Support Services program.