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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louie Liu who wrote (17474)	7/28/1998 9:44:00 AM
From: princesedi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

Ancor Adds Zoning, Switch Management Features to GigWorks MKII Fibre Channel Switch Company is First to Introduce Hard Zoning, Providing Maximum Data Security for Storage Area Networks MINNEAPOLIS, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancor Communications (Nasdaq: ANCR) announced it has released three-level zoning and enhanced Web-based switch management for its GigWorks MKII 16-port Fibre Channel switch as part of a mid-year technology update for storage system providers. The new features, included at no additional cost to storage system providers, make it easier to build highly secure and flexible GigWorks Storage Area Networks (SANs), in which multiple storage devices are networked with one or more servers. Zoning Ancor's three-level zoning service includes hard zoning, virtual zoning, and broadcast zoning, and enables SAN devices to be organized into subsets within the storage fabric. The multi-level zoning gives IT managers the flexibility to support the needs of different groups and technologies without compromising data security. Ancor is the only Fibre Channel switch manufacturer that provides hard zoning, which delivers the highest level of security. With hard zoning, IT managers program zone assignments into the flash memory of each of Ancor's custom ASICs, which control four ports. This ensures that there can be absolutely no data traffic between zones. "Zoning is an essential feature for SAN management of information assets. Ancor's hard zoning uniquely provides customers with the highest security," said Ed Frymoyer, a Fibre Channel consultant and founder of emf Associates. "It enables, for example, sensitive human resources data to be on the same SAN as engineering's CAD drawings. There would be virtually zero risk of compromising the integrity of that HR data." Ancor also offers virtual zoning, which provides additional flexibility because it is set at the individual port level. This means users can configure individual virtual zones on a MKII fabric. In addition, individual ports can be members of more than one virtual zone, so groups can have access to more than one set of data on the SAN. For example, data-intensive application users can be assigned access to all types of storage devices, while less demanding users could be limited to lower-end JBOD boxes. Broadcast zoning can be used to restrict the scope of broadcasts; for example, IP ARP broadcasts can be kept from SCSI ports on the switch. These IP broadcasts can otherwise cause storage devices to crash. Switch Management Ancor is also releasing enhanced switch management features for storage system providers. The mid-year update includes a new Web browser interface for flexible monitoring, configuring and trouble-shooting. Unlike less-flexible Fibre Channel switches, Ancor designed its management functionality to work with the management applications of the leading systems vendors. This means different management interfaces are available to different storage system providers. Management is consistent from the fabric to the switch ports to the storage devices on the arbitrated loop. "We're committed to providing access on all levels, whether it's for simple switch monitoring or for performing sophisticated diagnostics. This is consistent with our strategic focus on delivering a flexible Fibre Channel switch solution that can adapt to the evolving storage market, protecting our customers' investments," said Carla Kennedy, vice president of marketing, Ancor Communications. About Fibre Channel Fibre Channel is an ANSI-standard, high-speed, low-latency data communications technology that provides gigabit-per-second transmission rates in storage/server environments and high-performance networks. Ancor GigWorks products combine the speed and simplicity of channels with the flexibility of networks to solve bandwidth problems caused by the transfer of large data files among storage, server and client nodes in high-performance compute environments. Ancor Fibre Channel products provide optimal speed and throughput for data-intensive applications such as shared storage, CAD/CAM, visualization, data mining and file backup. About Ancor Communications Ancor Communications Inc. provides GigWorks(TM) high-performance storage and data-intensive network solutions based on Fibre-Channel technology. The company was the first to deliver a Fibre Channel switch, and the first to top the one-gigabit performance level. In addition to Fibre Channel switches, Ancor products also include adapters and connectivity solutions. Ancor is a member of the Fibre Channel Association, Fibre Channel Loop Community, the Storage Network Industry Association, the ANSI Standards Committee and the University of New Hampshire Fibre Channel Consortium to promote the advancement of Fibre Channel standards and interoperability. Information on Ancor is available on the World Wide Web at ancor.com. SOURCE Ancor Communications, Inc. CO: Ancor Communications, Inc. ST: Minnesota IN: CPR SU: PDT 07/28/98 09:32 EDT prnewswire.com