MCDT Mcdata

McDATA� Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of data access solutions, announced today four new professional services offerings that help customers justify, plan, deploy and optimize their mainframe environment, simplifying life for mainframe administrators. The new service offerings leverage McDATA�s 25 years of mainframe experience and best-practices expertise and make McDATA the only storage networking vendor to offer a comprehensive suite of professional services specifically designed for the mainframe environment. �Only McDATA can provide customers with a complete mainframe solution offering, including a complete line of FICON switching products, ESCON and FICON extension products, integrated management software, bandwidth services as well as professional and support services,� said Todd Oseth, chief operating officer, McDATA. �This new suite of consulting, implementation and education services augments McDATA�s broad mainframe solution portfolio and allows customers to leverage our more than two decades of mainframe experience.� Faced with the difficult challenge of meeting strict data retention and protection demands while continuing to drive down operational costs, IT organizations are looking at FICON migrations and expansions to provide cost-effective performance. However, current industry standard management tools do not always provide the level of detailed metrics required to ensure an optimized storage environment, forcing customers to make �best guess� decisions. In addition, mainframe administrators don�t always have the information they need to determine when or how to add capacity or upgrade infrastructure to achieve the desired result. McDATA�s new tool-based services are specifically designed to meet the needs of mainframe customers by providing a more granular operational window into the environment, helping companies analyze and plan new FICON deployments more effectively. McDATA�s new professional services offerings include: Mainframe Infrastructure ROI Analysis: allows customers to understand the benefits and financial return of a FICON technology migration, upgrade or expansion before committing to the investment Mainframe Storage I/O Healthcheck: gives customers detailed metrics about how their mainframe storage infrastructure is performing and identifies opportunities to optimize performance Mainframe Infrastructure ESCON to FICON Migration Implementation Services: leverages the experience of McDATA mainframe experts to ensure a best-practice deployment and smooth transition to FICON Advanced Mainframe Infrastructure Seminar: ensures that operational staff understand the latest advancements and best practices in FICON technology McDATA�s new mainframe professional services offerings are available now throughout North America. Worldwide offerings will be available during the first half of 2007. About McDATA (www.mcdata.com) McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT) is the leading provider of storage networking solutions, helping customers build, globally connect, optimize and centrally manage data infrastructures across SAN, MAN and WAN environments. With nearly 25 years experience developing SAN products, services and solutions, McDATA is the trusted partner in the world's largest data centers, connecting more than two-thirds of all networked data. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements about expected future events that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the terms "believes", "belief", "expects", "plans", "objectives", "estimates", "anticipates", "intends", "targets", or the like to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that could cause actual results to differ and vary materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, McDATA�s relationships with EMC, IBM and Hitachi Data Systems and the level of their orders, aggressive price competition by numerous other SAN and IP switch suppliers, OEM qualification of our new products - such as the Intrepid 10000 Director, integration of CNT�s sales and marketing functions, manufacturing constraints, constraints in obtaining third party product for resale and other risk factors that are disclosed in McDATA�s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by McDATA should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by McDATA. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. McDATA does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. McDATA(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of data access solutions, announced today four new professional services offerings that help customers justify, plan, deploy and optimize their mainframe environment, simplifying life for mainframe administrators. The new service offerings leverage McDATA's 25 years of mainframe experience and best-practices expertise and make McDATA the only storage networking vendor to offer a comprehensive suite of professional services specifically designed for the mainframe environment. "Only McDATA can provide customers with a complete mainframe solution offering, including a complete line of FICON switching products, ESCON and FICON extension products, integrated management software, bandwidth services as well as professional and support services," said Todd Oseth, chief operating officer, McDATA. "This new suite of consulting, implementation and education services augments McDATA's broad mainframe solution portfolio and allows customers to leverage our more than two decades of mainframe experience." Faced with the difficult challenge of meeting strict data retention and protection demands while continuing to drive down operational costs, IT organizations are looking at FICON migrations and expansions to provide cost-effective performance. However, current industry standard management tools do not always provide the level of detailed metrics required to ensure an optimized storage environment, forcing customers to make "best guess" decisions. In addition, mainframe administrators don't always have the information they need to determine when or how to add capacity or upgrade infrastructure to achieve the desired result. McDATA's new tool-based services are specifically designed to meet the needs of mainframe customers by providing a more granular operational window into the environment, helping companies analyze and plan new FICON deployments more effectively. McDATA's new professional services offerings include: -- Mainframe Infrastructure ROI Analysis: allows customers to understand the benefits and financial return of a FICON technology migration, upgrade or expansion before committing to the investment -- Mainframe Storage I/O Healthcheck: gives customers detailed metrics about how their mainframe storage infrastructure is performing and identifies opportunities to optimize performance -- Mainframe Infrastructure ESCON to FICON Migration Implementation Services: leverages the experience of McDATA mainframe experts to ensure a best-practice deployment and smooth transition to FICON -- Advanced Mainframe Infrastructure Seminar: ensures that operational staff understand the latest advancements and best practices in FICON technology McDATA's new mainframe professional services offerings are available now throughout North America. Worldwide offerings will be available during the first half of 2007. About McDATA (www.mcdata.com) McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT) is the leading provider of storage networking solutions, helping customers build, globally connect, optimize and centrally manage data infrastructures across SAN, MAN and WAN environments. With nearly 25 years experience developing SAN products, services and solutions, McDATA is the trusted partner in the world's largest data centers, connecting more than two-thirds of all networked data. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements about expected future events that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the terms "believes", "belief", "expects", "plans", "objectives", "estimates", "anticipates", "intends", "targets", or the like to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that could cause actual results to differ and vary materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, McDATA's relationships with EMC, IBM and Hitachi Data Systems and the level of their orders, aggressive price competition by numerous other SAN and IP switch suppliers, OEM qualification of our new products - such as the Intrepid 10000 Director, integration of CNT's sales and marketing functions, manufacturing constraints, constraints in obtaining third party product for resale and other risk factors that are disclosed in McDATA's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These cautionary statements by McDATA should not be construed as exhaustive or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by McDATA. All cautionary statements should be read as being applicable to all forward-looking statements wherever they appear. McDATA does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.