McDATA, SANavigator Save BlueCross BlueShield $120K in First Month
BROOMFIELD, Colo., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- McDATA® Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA - news, MCDT - news), the worldwide leader in open storage networking solutions, today announced that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has selected and implemented McDATA solutions at the heart of its data center. McDATA's full family of core-to-edge enterprise products lowers BlueCross BlueShield's overall IT costs, greatly simplifies the management and complexity of its storage infrastructure and provides the highest available level of reliability and access to its data and applications.
Explosive data growth, triggered by a record year in both sales and enrollment, left the IT team at BlueCross BlueShield wondering how they would meet these growing requirements, not only today but also into the future. BlueCross BlueShield needed to gain control of its rapidly growing and disparate storage infrastructure with a solution that could easily scale with future growth and lower its overall IT costs. It also needed to do this in a non-disruptive manner. After extensive evaluations, BlueCross BlueShield chose a McDATA storage area network (SAN) solution that includes McDATA's 6000 Series Directors, 3000 Series Fabric Switches, 1000 Series Loop Switches and its storage network management software, SANavigator by McDATA(TM).
McDATA and BlueCross BlueShield, however, share more than a traditional vendor and customer relationship. It is a strategic partnership, encompassing comprehensive solutions that extend beyond hardware and software. McDATA has partnered with BlueCross BlueShield to assist in designing its long-term storage infrastructure strategy. This approach allows BlueCross BlueShield to leverage McDATA's expertise in the SAN marketplace and get the results it needs to better serve its customers.
``BlueCross BlueShield is committed to problem-free relationships with our customers. We need a reliable IT infrastructure to accomplish that, which is totally changing the way we do business. Our organization is increasingly benefiting from our IT department, and our storage network is key to that transition. That's why we were so particular when we chose a partner,'' said Bob Venable, manager of enterprise systems for BlueCross BlueShield. ``We've been able to grow our business by 15 percent while at the same time improving corporate efficiency by 40 percent. We've done that largely through IT spending, and the partnership we've formed with McDATA is responsible for a significant part of that savings.''
In fact, Venable said that over the last six years the amount of data traveling through BlueCross BlueShield's network has grown from 500 gigabytes to the current 46 terabytes, while the manpower necessary to manage that data hasn't grown at all. The McDATA solution already has saved BlueCross BlueShield a considerable amount of money and has never caused a bottleneck or network downtime.
``After we looked at the offerings from the various SAN and software vendors out there, we knew without a doubt McDATA was the clear choice,'' said Venable. ``After only a month running SANavigator software, it already has saved us about $120,000 with its asset management features. SANavigator helps us optimize our storage resources and with its monitoring functions gives us the ability to effectively manage 46 terabytes of data and over 4,000 users with only four part-time administrators.''
On the hardware side, Venable noted that McDATA's architecture proved far superior when compared to the competition. Venable and his team understood that building a SAN with Director-class products at the core offered more stability and a much higher level of availability than one cobbled together with several departmental switches. McDATA's family of core-to-edge products also enables BlueCross BlueShield the ability to non-disruptively grow and update its SAN.
``McDATA is the only vendor we've found that can provide checking between each piece of equipment and the capability to do hot microcode updates,'' Venable said. ``Downtime to add and make changes to the network must be minimal to nothing. That's exactly why BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is a McDATA customer.''
About McDATA ( www.mcdata.com )
McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA - news, MCDT - news) is the worldwide leader in open storage networking solutions and provides highly available, scalable and centrally managed storage area networks (SANs) that address enterprise-wide storage problems. McDATA's core-to-edge enterprise SAN solutions improve the reliability and availability of data to simplify SAN management and reduce the total cost of ownership. McDATA extensively pre-tests its solutions to provide IT organizations with the comprehensive tools, methodologies and support essential to robust SAN implementation. McDATA distributes its products through its OEMs, network of resellers and Elite Solution Partners. McDATA and the McDATA logo are registered trademarks of McDATA Corporation.
About BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee ( www.bcbst.com )
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is the state's leader in health care financing. Founded in 1945, the Chattanooga-based not-for-profit company now serves more than 4.1 million people. The company paid more than 41 million claims and $7.4 billion in health care benefits in 2000. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has more than 4,300 employees. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.bcbst.com . BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is an independent licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements about expected future events that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the terms ``believes'', ``belief'', ``expects'', ``plans'', ``objectives'', ``estimates'', ``anticipates'', ``intends'', ``targets'', or the like to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that could cause actual results to differ and vary materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, our ability to quickly integrate SANavigator and ramp sales, our relationship with EMC Corporation and IBM and the level of their orders, the impact of the general economic slowdown and the recent terrorist attacks on purchasing decisions by customers and capital spending, our ability to complete the manufacturing review plan and the successful implementation (which will require contract modifications with our contract manufacturer) of an ``outsourcing-focused'' manufacturing model, our ability to expand sales into higher margin channels through system integrators and distributors, our ability to secure one additional OEM channel in 2001, a loss of any of our key customers (or our OEMs' key customers), distributors, resellers or our contract manufacturer, our ability to expand our product offerings and any transition to new products, component quality and availability, the impact and uncertainty of typically having most of the sales volume occur in the last month and a significant amount in the last two weeks of the fiscal quarter, the development of the storage area network and switch markets, competition in the storage area network and switch markets, one-time events and other important risk factors disclosed previously and from time to time in our filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by us should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by us. We cannot always predict or determine after the fact what factors would cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements or other statements. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE: McDATA Corporation |
