Gadzoox Networks to Demonstrate Industry's First Fibre Channel to Gigabit Ethernet Router At Networld+Interop 2000.
NetWorld Interop 2000
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000
Gigabit Ethernet Routing Leverages IP's Ubiquitous Infrastructure
and Quality of Service Capabilities to Deliver Advanced SAN-Based
Disaster Tolerance Solutions
Gadzoox(R) Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOOX), a leading provider of SAN (storage area network) products, today announced that the company will be demonstrating the industry's first fibre channel to gigabit Ethernet router at the Networld+Interop 2000 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 9-11. For users seeking to implement a business continuance strategy through the real-time replication of data between remote sites, gigabit Ethernet routing provides a new alternative with lower connectivity costs and enhanced reliability. Through this demonstration Gadzoox Networks reaffirms its commitment to providing the technological advancements required to enable continuous access to mission critical data.
"SANs have been localized islands, which are great, but not enough allow for remote storage requirements. IP is a standards based mechanism that everyone is comfortable with for wide-area connections." says Steve Duplessie, Sr. Analyst with The Enterprise Storage Group. The marriage of the two technologies makes perfect sense. By being able to continue with IP, since it's quality of service and management functions are well established, SAN users now have a viable medium for long distance storage architectures, namely gigabit ethernet. This will further accelerate SAN adoption rates."
In the emerging phases of the market, SAN deployments have been driven by specific business application needs such as online transaction processing, LAN-free backup and high availability clustering. And, while localized SAN "islands" have provided solutions for these application needs, the absence of long distance connectivity capabilities have posed a barrier for large enterprises and service providers that need to interconnect remote SAN islands for the purpose of data replication and restoration. Fibre channel to gigabit Ethernet routing offers a remote connectivity solution by routing traffic from a SAN through the gigabit Ethernet backbone to a wide area network router where it can be transmitted over a broad range of distances to another SAN.
"By providing an easy method for accessing SANs through the existing IP networks, the benefits of storage area networks can be more readily realized by businesses that rely on remote sites," said Dave Tang, Gadzoox Networks vice president of marketing. "With this innovative approach, application service providers, Internet service providers, storage service providers and enterprise users with remote data centers can deploy distributed SANs without having to build a new infrastructure or bear the cost of dark fiber."
The development of fibre channel to gigabit Ethernet routing provides a compelling alternative to the existing methods for remote SAN connectivity since it adds quality of service capabilities to SAN traffic. Since fibre channel does not offer any quality of service capabilities, it requires either dedicated point-to-point connections or addition error recovery methods. As outlined in the strategic initiative announcement released last month, Gadzoox is committed to the partnerships and joint development efforts that will help deliver a broad range of optimized solutions for individual user needs. In addition to the gigabit Ethernet router, Gadzoox is also pursuing solutions based on fibre channel, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) technologies. The company has also partnered with Lucent Technologies to develop new standards for the transmission of fibre channel SAN traffic over IP networks.
"To deliver true solutions to the marketplace, SANs must connect with and leverage existing and emerging network technologies," said Wayne Rickard, Gadzoox Networks senior vice president of research and development. "Unlike point products that are limited in capability and extensibility, the modular architecture of our hub, switch and router products is designed to take advantage of complementary technologies to provide highly integrated and purposeful solutions."
Gadzoox Networks Offers Broad Line of SAN Products
Gadzoox, a leader in the SAN market, offers a broad range of advanced products including Bitstrip(TM) (gigabit Fibre Channel hub), Gibraltar(TM) (managed Fibre Channel hub), Ventana(TM) (SAN management software application), Capellix(TM) 2000 (stackable SAN switch) and the performance record-setting(1) Capellix(TM) 3000 (modular SAN switch).
About Gadzoox Networks, Inc.
Gadzoox Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOOX) is a leader in SAN (storage area network) products. The Company provides networking solutions for enterprise storage with scalable, managed SAN solutions based on Gadzoox' Fibre Channel hubs, switches and management products. Serving as modular building blocks, Gadzoox' products are designed to address the growth in enterprise data through the evolving capabilities of SANs. According to the most recent report from market research firm IDC dated February 2000, Gadzoox holds the largest installed base of combined switch and managed hub port shipments from 1997 through 1999(2). Gadzoox is an ISO 9001 certified Company. Gadzoox corporate headquarters is located at: 5850 Hellyer Avenue, San Jose, CA 95138. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.gadzoox.com or call 888.423.3222.
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