Brocade, Ciena Team on SAN

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LINTHICUM, Md. -- Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade®) (Nasdaq:BRCD - News) and Ciena® Corporation (Nasdaq:CIEN - News) today announced a plan to provide fully-tested Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions over Metro and Wide Area Networks (MANs/WANs). Based on each company's best-in-class connectivity technology, these solutions establish a new price/performance industry benchmark for SAN extension solutions used to support enterprise business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) applications.

The alliance provides enterprises with additional options to extend SANs using a wide range of MANs and WANs, and gives organizations the ability to implement BC/DR solutions with the best possible cost structure for each deployment scenario. By combining the market's leading 4 Gbit/sec SAN directors and switches from Brocade with Ciena's CN 4200(TM) FlexSelect(TM) Advanced Services Platform or CN 2000® Storage Extension Platform, organizations can implement high-performance links between remote sites while maximizing throughput and reducing WAN bandwidth costs. Customers can select the solution that best fits their requirements, and realize superior price/performance benefits in distance extension applications that utilize Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) technologies.

Ciena and Brocade's 4G Fibre Channel (FC) Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) solutions are already deployed in networks operated by an international financial institution and a North American retailer, representing the industry's first 4 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel SANs multiplexed over the WAN. Utilizing Ciena's CN 4200 and Brocade's 4 Gbit/sec SilkWorm 48000 SAN director, the retail customer is load balancing multiple Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) between data centers on a single WDM system. Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture enables the densities by aggregating three 4 Gbit/sec channels per wavelength, versus two per wavelength with other solutions.

"Brocade has a long history of working closely with industry partners to provide best-in-class solutions and building blocks that help IT managers reduce cost and increase flexibility," said Tom Buiocchi, vice president of worldwide marketing and support at Brocade. "We are very pleased to team with Ciena to enhance our partners' ability to provide tested and validated connectivity solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity."

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD)

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)