APPLICATIONS

LAS VEGAS - VERITAS VISION(TM) 2003 -- Brocade(R) Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD) , the world's leading provider of infrastructure for storage area networks (SANs), and VERITAS Software Corporation (NASDAQ:VRTS) , the leading storage software provider, today announced a joint development agreement in which VERITAS will develop volume management and storage resource management software technology for the Brocade SilkWorm(R) Fabric Application Platform (SilkWorm Fabric AP). VERITAS will use the Brocade XPath API, the application-programming interface to the SilkWorm Fabric AP development environment, to port storage management software intelligence to the switch. Both companies are assigning engineering resources to the project and are demonstrating a prototype joint Brocade-VERITAS solution at VERITAS VISION, the annual VERITAS users conference, in Las Vegas this week. "As a customer of Brocade and VERITAS, this is a very positive development from our perspective," said George Guethlein, Senior Manager, GSP Enterprise Storage, Usinternetworking. "Fabric-based volume management could potentially simplify storage administration and reduce management costs." "Storage and SAN vendors in particular are now turning to the time proven IT approach of virtualization for mitigating the complexities associated with significant IT implementations. An additional benefit derived from fabric-based intelligence is that it removes barriers to data movement," said John Webster, Founder of Data Mobility Group. "VERITAS' decision to develop volume management technology for the network on Brocade's SilkWorm Application Platform promises to simplify SAN administration for customers. The collaboration also promises to make data more mobile for the benefit of applications and users, and easier to secure through fabric-based backup and copy functions." The new storage management solutions resulting from the VERITAS-Brocade collaboration will allow customers to determine and deploy optimal storage management solutions for their environments, increase operational efficiency and lower overall IT cost. IT organizations will be able to benefit from VERITAS' market leading volume management software(i), as well as storage resource management (SRM) technology, and the Brocade SilkWorm Fabric AP, the industry's first open, intelligent platform for fabric-based applications. VERITAS(TM) volume management software helps simplify the administration of heterogeneous environments and offers proactive management of applications while helping to optimize performance and reduce downtime. Additionally, VERITAS plans to integrate SRM technology with the Brocade Fabric AP to simplify the complex tasks involved in deploying, managing and growing a multi-vendor networked storage environment. The SilkWorm Fabric AP, based on Brocade's patent-pending XPath technology, extends the functionality of existing SAN infrastructures to deliver added system performance, enhanced application scalability, dramatic reduction in management touch points and new levels of return on investment made possible through consolidated management. By adding a SilkWorm Fabric AP switch to an existing SAN utilizing Brocade technology, customers will be able to further simplify and extend storage and SAN infrastructure. "As companies look to consolidate their storage and lower IT costs, VERITAS and Brocade are committed to enabling customers to increase their utilization of existing resources and simplify their storage management tasks across distributed heterogeneous servers," said Mark Bregman, executive vice president of product operations, VERITAS Software. "We look forward to further expanding our strategic partnership with Brocade to deliver next-generation storage networking solutions to the market." "SAN customers are focused on simplifying the management of their heterogeneous storage environments, while maintaining their significant investments in storage, applications and SAN infrastructure," said Mike Klayko, Brocade Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Support. "We are pleased to extend our relationship with VERITAS to extend the options for our mutual customers in simplifying the management of heterogeneous storage through fabric-based solutions." VERITAS and Brocade are demonstrating a prototype of VERITAS volume management software running on the SilkWorm Fabric AP at the VERITAS VISION 2003 conference in Las Vegas, May 4-8 in the Brocade exhibit (booth #101). VERITAS VISION 2003, the company's sixth annual users conference, brings together IT professionals and leading technology companies for technical presentations, product demonstrations and exhibits to explore ways to leverage technology to lower IT costs. Brocade Director of Product Marketing, Brian Byun, will host a workshop on the SilkWorm Fabric AP at 3 p.m. PT on May 7. Brocade Director of Industry Marketing, Tony DiCenzo, will participate on a panel on standards at 8 a.m. PT on May 8.