APPLICATIONS

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (NASDAQ:BRCD) , a leading provider of infrastructure for Storage Area Networks (SANs), announced today that IBM will support FICON on the Brocade SilkWorm(R) 12000 Director for IBM mainframe environments, enabling end user customers to standardize their SAN infrastructure across mainframe and open systems platforms. Brocade FICON support will be available through IBM on Oct. 31 as part of the Brocade Fabric Operating System upgrade at no cost to end users. Support for FICON extends connectivity options, enabling Brocade end-users to connect IBM mainframes to Brocade-based SAN environments, supporting efficiencies in training, network management, and equipment provisioning and sparing. "With Brocade FICON support Lufthansa Systems will now have the option to take advantage of the benefits of Brocade-based SANs in an IBM mainframe environment," said Curt Borschel, Manager Enterprise Storage, Lufthansa Systems Infratec GmbH. "Using this solution will give us added flexibility and the potential to get synergy effects from managing our storage environment for all platforms." FICON support on the IBM TotalStorage SAN Switch M12 and the Brocade SilkWorm 12000 extends third generation SAN features to mainframe SANs, including ISL Trunking, hardware-enforced zoning, and Secure Fabric OS. "This will give IBM mainframe customers more options when selecting a storage networking fabric for their unique environment," said Cindy Grossman, Director of Storage Marketing, IBM Systems Group. "By deploying high performance Brocade Directors for both IBM mainframe and IBM UNIX environments, customers have the potential to see improved performance, availability, management, and security." Brocade FICON implementation, which was released to Brocade OEM customers earlier this year, also supports new capabilities such as FICON cascading and mainframe and open systems intermix mode. "FICON support on the Brocade SilkWorm 12000 Director builds on the strong success of our director-class product for the enterprise market," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade Vice President of Marketing. "Deploying Brocade Directors in both IBM mainframe and open system storage environments helps our end user customers to meet their storage networking requirements at a lower cost and with less IT manpower."