PRESS RELEASE: German Mobile Phone Provider Supports Rapid Data Growth With Brocade-Based Storage Area Network
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Tue Mar 23 08:21:59 2004 EST
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade Communications
Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the world's leading provider of
infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), today announced that
Germany's third largest mobile phone provider is upgrading its SAN
infrastructure with Brocade SilkWorm(R) 12000 Directors. E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH
& Co., which provides GSM phone service to more than eight million customers,
is integrating the new directors into a core-to-edge design that provides
redundancy, reliability, and the scalability it needs to keep pace with data
growth resulting from new services and a burgeoning customer base.
The enhanced and expanded SAN infrastructure supports a heterogeneous
environment that includes more than 200 UNIX and Intel servers and storage
systems from EMC, HP and HDS. E-Plus operates two fully redundant SANs, at
separate sites 18 km apart from each other, with each site using two Brocade
Directors and eight SilkWorm 3900 switches for each network core, with Brocade
fabric switches deployed at the edge.
"The new SAN design, coupled with the latest generation of 32-port switches,
is the basis on which our SAN can continue to grow," said Volker Westphal,
Executive Director Operations and E-Plus board member. "We also plan to
successively exchange currently installed Brocade SilkWorm 2800 switches with
SilkWorm 3900s switches, so we can raise the number of ports as necessary and
protect our investments. Despite unrelenting growth, the SAN is easy to
administer, which relieves us of a great burden."
E-Plus initially moved from Direct Attached Storage to Brocade-based SAN
technology in 2000, and incrementally expanded the infrastructure over several
years. The proven growth path between different generations of Brocade SAN
infrastructure devices and the compatibility with storage systems from all
major providers affords E-Plus the confidence to plan for future expansion
while protecting its total IT investment.
"In industries as fiercely competitive as telecommunications, a
forward-looking storage infrastructure means a real edge over competitors,"
said Uli Plechschmidt, Regional Director Central Region at Brocade. "With a new
SAN strategy to keep IT costs permanently low, including support for utility
computing and information lifecycle management, E-Plus is ideally equipped for
the future."
About Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
Brocade offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking
storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have
selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions.
The Brocade SilkWorm(R) family of fabric switches and software is designed to
optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise.
Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage
area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments,
and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the
Brocade website at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.
NOTE: Brocade, the Brocade B weave logo, Secure Fabric OS, and SilkWorm are
registered trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United
States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM
Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or
service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to
identify, products or services of their respective owners.
SOURCE Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
/CONTACT: media, Lee Davis, +1-408-333-5177, or ldavis@brocade.com, or
investors, Shirley Stacy, +1-408-333-5752, or sstacy@brocade.com, both of
Brocade; or Wendy Lewis of FS Communications, +1-650-691-1488, or
wendy@fscomm.com, for Brocade/
/Web site: brocade.com /
(BRCD BRCD2)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-23-04 0822ET
08:22 032304
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