Microsoft and McDATA Form Strategic Lab Services Agreement to Offer
High-Availability Solution Center Services
Services Reduce Risk and Accelerate Application Deployment
May 22, 2000 08:16
BROOMFIELD, Colo., and REDMOND, Wash., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- McDATA(R) Corp. and Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:
MSFT) today announced they have signed a strategic Lab Services Agreement. With this agreement, the companies plan
to establish a Microsoft and McDATA High-Availability Solution Center designed to offer customers prequalified and tested
higher data availability storage area networks (SANs) for the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 2000 operating system. This
agreement represents the companies' commitment to enhance performance and availability of Windows 2000-based
applications. Customers will be able to deploy both Windows 2000 and SANs, creating a data infrastructure that will be
robust and scalable enough to meet the demands of the most critical enterprise applications. The center is scheduled to
open this month at both the Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) facility in Bellevue, Wash., and McDATA's System
Integration Lab in Broomfield, Colo.
(Photo: newscom.com )
At each facility, customers can test highly available SANs with Microsoft and McDATA products, evaluating the capability
of various configurations to meet their application platform requirements and performance goals. This approach allows for
a level of service that will expedite how quickly a business, whether a dot-com or traditional brick-and-mortar, can
implement a SAN and ensure compatibility with Microsoft applications. Because of the data explosion the Internet has
created, IT managers need services that are activated as quickly as possible while providing complete control of the
network.
"A challenge for the enterprise has been to conduct application and operating system performance testing without
affecting production or business environments," said Jeff Vogel, McDATA's vice president of marketing and system
integration. "By creating the High-Availability Solution Center, Microsoft and McDATA offer IT managers the full-service
testing needed to accelerate application deployment."
A recent market research study by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) interviewed 100 IS professionals from
medium-sized to large corporations. The survey participants were asked to name all the operating systems they will include
in their SAN. Ninety percent are using or will be using the Microsoft Windows NT(R) operating system. In addition, the
study reports the top three issues driving the majority of the companies interviewed to look at SANs: scalability
requirements (72 percent), faster data access (66 percent) and higher data availability (66 percent).
At the core of the enterprise SAN is the McDATA ED-5000 Director. The highly available characteristics of the McDATA
ED-5000 Director complement Microsoft Windows 2000-based applications. The Fibre Channel Director addresses
customer concerns about the cost, data availability and performance of their SAN infrastructure. Customers benefit from
the Director's 99.999 percent data availability, which increases system performance. McDATA's ED-5000 Director is the
premier choice as the key connectivity device for implementing large-scale SANs in enterprise production environments.
"Microsoft is teaming with McDATA because of its extremely robust product features and value-added services provided by
the Systems Integration Lab," said Dave Roush, director of Availability and Benchmarking Services at Microsoft. "No other
SAN provider in the industry today can provide the high availability features or depth of application expertise that was
required to underlay highly available SAN and Windows 2000-based deployments. By teaming with McDATA, we can
reduce SAN implementation barriers and offer our customers a unique opportunity to see first-hand that our software
technology meets enterprise high-availability computing requirements."
In addition to the High Availability Solution Center, McDATA is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and a customer of
Microsoft Premier Support for Developers services. Through these programs, McDATA gains full access to Microsoft
development, support and testing services. As a result, both companies can address enterprise customer requirements
quickly and efficiently, while alleviating the risk associated with deploying SANs.
About McDATA
McDATA specializes in providing highly available, scalable and centrally managed SAN solutions. The company's goal is
to deliver SAN solutions that truly address the storage problems of the enterprise. McDATA offers end-to-end SAN solutions
designed to improve the reliability and availability of data, greatly simplify SAN management and reduce the total cost of
ownership. McDATA's solutions give IT administrators the ability to connect and manage multiple SANs from data centers
to edge servers, eliminating previously independent islands of corporate information. These enterprise SAN solutions
provide IT organizations with comprehensive tools, methodologies and support to implement robust SANs. McDATA
distributes its products through its OEMs, network of resellers and Elite Solution Partners. For more information about
McDATA, visit our Web site at mcdata.com .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and
business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through
great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
NOTE: Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United
States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of
their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements," according to the Federal Securities laws. Actual results could vary
materially. Factors that could cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, component quality and
availability, transition to new products, changes in business conditions, changes in sales strategy and product development
plans, changes in the switch marketplace, competition in the switch market, competitive pricing pressures, continued
market acceptance of products, delays in the development of new technology, changes in customer buying patterns,
one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in filings at the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
SOURCE McDATA Corp.
/CONTACT: Mary Lindstrom of McDATA Corp., 303-460-3474, or
mlindstrom@mcdata.com; or Kristina Kolerich of Parker LePla, 206-285-5280, or
kristina@parkerlepla.com, for McDATA Corp.; or Sarah Winterhalder,
415-563-8544, or swinter@wagged.com, or Rapid Response Team, 503-443-7000, or
rrt@wagged.com, both of Waggener Edstrom, for Microsoft/
/Photo: NewsCom: newscom.com
AP Archive: photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467/
/Web site: mcdata.com
(MSFT) |
