Vodafone Information Systems Future-Proofs Storage With Brocade Directors IT Service Provider for Leading Mobile Phone Company Builds Redundant Back-Up Network Capability Based on Two SilkWorm 12000 Directors From Brocade
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Thu May 13 08:30:00 2004 EST
MUNICH, Germany, May 13, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
Brocade Communications
Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the world's leading provider of
infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), today announced
that its Director-class SilkWorm 12000 was chosen by Vodafone Information
Systems, the IT service provider of mobile phone provider Vodafone, for an
expansion of an existing Fibre Channel SAN. Working with StorageTek, Vodafone
expanded its Brocade SAN, originally installed in early 2001, to integrate a
second data center into the storage network.
"The SilkWorm 12000 Directors from Brocade were our first choice, since
scalability, high availability, flexibility and reliability play a key role in
our industry," said Wilfried Leigers, Senior Manager for Data Management at
Vodafone Information Systems GmbH. "Upgrading the SAN enabled us to respond
more quickly to customer requests, while substantially reducing the
administrative effort required for data backup."
Vodafone, one of the largest mobile service providers in Germany with more
than 24.6 million customers, added a second computer data center to its campus
to accommodate business growth and high storage requirements. The existing
Brocade SAN infrastructure was upgraded to enable both data centers to share
data backup drives for performing back-up and recovery tasks and to enable the
company to accommodate the increasing demand for flexible storage resources
and new requirements.
StorageTek recommended the SilkWorm 12000 Director from Brocade, which
also enabled the migration of the SAN to 2Gbit/sec technology. The two
computer centers, which are located on the Ratingen Vodafone campus, are in
separate buildings as a disaster precaution. The new SAN was designed with a
12000 director in each computer center as the heart of a core-to-edge design.
These directors are surrounded by thirteen SilkWorm 3800 switches (also with
2Gbit/sec technology), and 77 SilkWorm 2800 switches. Vodafone Information
Systems uses the SAN for backing up all data and for storing as much as 100
terabytes of data on 650 data backup drives each day.
"Faced with an ever-increasing number of services and growing numbers of
customers, the telecommunications sector has a particularly high demand for
storage capacities," said Ulrich Plechschmidt, Regional Director, Central
Region of Brocade. "The new SAN infrastructure positions Vodafone Information
Systems well for future utility computing and information lifecycle
management, while allowing the organization to leverage previous investments
by using its already purchased switches on the edge of the extended network."
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.
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.
Media Relations, Lee Davis, +1-408-333-5177 or
ldavis@brocade.com, or, Investor Relations, 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
brocade.com
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