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QLogic, CISCO LEAD INDUSTRY INTO NEW ERA OF MULTI-VENDOR SANs

QLogic Corp announced that Cisco and QLogic are leading the industry into a new era of multi-vendor SANs. Based on a design for full compliance with FC-SW (Fibre Channel Switch Fabric) standards, the two companies are now delivering core switches and blade server switches that have been tested and qualified as interoperable across a broad range of functions from basic port compatibility to sophisticated zoning techniques based on agreed testing protocols. SAN administrators can now build storage networks tailored to the specific needs of their applications using the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of Multilayer Intelligent directors and fabric switches and SANbox edge switches from QLogic.

"Cost and complexity remain a concern for customers as they consider adopting multi-vendor SANs," said Steve Duplessie, founder and president of the Enterprise Strategy Group. "This announcement shows that two of the major players in the industry are aggressively addressing those concerns with their standard product offerings by providing users with truly functional switch-to-switch interoperability from edge to core in compliance with industry standards, including useful features like zone configuration."

"The good news is that Fibre Channel interoperability switching standards have now reached a level of maturity in which customers can deploy heterogeneous switches in production networks without sacrificing must-have features," said Bill Erdman, director of technology alliances within Cisco's Storage Technology Group. "QLogic and Cisco exemplify this capability with the interoperability between QLogic's embedded blade server switches and the Cisco MDS 9000, which takes full advantage of FC-SW2 compliance, including the open exchange of management data, common security and zoning data."

According to Frank Berry, vice president of marketing for QLogic, "The true proof point of this interoperability is the ability to configure zones commonly across this heterogeneous switch environment. The product is designed to allow customers to configure common zones across server-facing ports on QLogic blades and storage-facing ports on MDS switches. This can be done using standard GS-3 in-band configuration services and with any zoning configuration application that supports GS-3."

QLogic SANbox Fibre Channel Switches

QLogic SANbox Fibre Channel network switches provide investment protection for current and future SAN infrastructures, establishing new standards of performance, reliability and simplicity. Available in 8-port and 16-port, slim form factors, QLogic SANbox switches are among the fastest, most scalable and easiest to manage Fibre Channel switches on the market.

The SANbox 5200 stackable switch from QLogic is the first stackable Fibre Channel switch and the first to take advantage of 10Gb Fibre Channel technology. Capitalizing on features that made stackable IP switches the best selling type of IP switch, the SANbox 5200 offers a low cost of entry with an 8-port configuration, breakthrough ease-of-use with wizard-based installation, the ability to scale to 64 ports without losing a single port to inter-switch links, blazing 10Gb performance and complete stack management from a single application.

About the Cisco MDS 9000 Family

The award-winning Cisco MDS 9000 Family is a comprehensive line of SAN switches for storage networks of all sizes and architectures. Comprised of the Cisco MDS 9500 series directors, the Cisco MDS 9216 flexible-configuration fabric switch, and the Cisco MDS 9100 series fabric switches, these solutions are designed to offer high performance and scalability, and delivers intelligent network services such as multiprotocol/multitransport integration, Virtual SANs (VSANs), security, advanced traffic management, sophisticated diagnostics and unified SAN management.

About QLogic

Since 1993, over 50 million QLogic products have shipped inside servers, workstations, RAID subsystems, tape libraries, disk and tape drives. These products were delivered to small, medium and large enterprises around the world. Powering solutions from leading companies like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Network Appliance, Quantum, StorageTek and Sun Microsystems, the broad line of QLogic controller chips, host bus adapters, network switches and management software move data from storage devices through the network fabric to servers. For more information visit www.qlogic.com.