Hitachi Data Systems, McDATA Extended Partnership Enables
Norway-Based Norsk Tipping To Easily Manage Storage and Prepare for
Future Growth
STOKE POGES, Buckinghamshire, and BROOMFIELD, Colo., Aug. 10, 2001 — Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA Corporation® (Nasdaq: MCDTA/MCDT), the worldwide leader in open storage networking solutions, announced today a major storage networking deal with the Norwegian gaming company, Norsk Tipping. The storage area network (SAN) solution will enable Norsk Tipping to consolidate its data in a single storage pool, which will greatly increase its commercial flexibility and ease its management.
The solution is based on a combination of Hitachi's Freedom Storage and McDATA's 6000 Series Galaxy-Class Director, and has been designed to enable Norsk Tipping (a company with an annual turnover of $950 million) to offer its gaming services from the industry's most reliable platform.
"The Hitachi and McDATA combination is renowned for delivering highly reliable, mission critical storage environments," said Jan P. Strømslid, vice president of operations at Norsk Tipping. "The implementation of this system is clearly of great importance to us as a gaming organization because all of our 4,000 retailers and literally millions of customers are so dependent upon the availability of our systems."
The architecture is based on the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9960 with a McDATA 6000 Series: ED-6064 Director at the core. The SAN solution allows Norsk Tipping to consolidate the storage required for its lotteries into a single, easy to manage infrastructure.
"McDATA's solutions are key to customers as they develop cost-effective, yet robust and extremely flexible, information infrastructures," said Jack McDonnell, CEO and chairman of McDATA. "This business alliance between McDATA and Hitachi Data Systems brings to market an easy-to-manage, industry-leading SAN solution that not only grows with the customer but does so in a cost-effective manner."
For Norsk Tipping, the key benefit of this solution is its ability to cope with growth. The combination of Hitachi's massively scalable storage and McDATA's best-in-class 64 port Director ensures that Norsk Tipping can manage all of its existing storage requirements more efficiently, and add additional capacity with ease. The outcome is a solution that can be adapted and upgraded to accommodate future business demands.
"Such a flexible information infrastructure is vital for us," says Strømslid. "We need to be able to introduce and support any new games easily. And, at the same time, we need to keep a tight control on data that is growing exponentially. If not, our costs will spiral. This storage solution is a critical solution for our business."
This allows customers to create storage solutions that are designed for their specific enterprise needs. McDATA Directors are used for the core-switching environment where high availability is crucial, while McDATA Fibre Channel switches can be applied to the edge of the network at a lower price per port. The entire core-to-edge enterprise solution can then be controlled with the same management tool, McDATA's Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM). Such freedom of choice is a huge advantage for today's enterprises.
"Hitachi Freedom Data Networks offers choices without forcing you to redesign your enterprise," said Trevor Williams, Networks Solutions Manager at Hitachi Data Systems. "This has proved to be of great importance for Norsk Tipping, because it greatly enhances their ability to take advantage of new windows of commercial opportunity without constantly reinvesting in new server technologies."
"McDATA and Hitachi Data Systems have a strong, long-term relationship," said Richard Search, vice president of marketing for McDATA. "Customers today demand unmatched connectivity and performance, and through our best-of-breed 6000 Series Director, combined with the highly scalable HDS storage systems, we are pleased we'll be able to address that customer requirement."
Committed to helping customers exploit the value of information technology for success in the Internet economy, Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), is a leading provider of business solutions for the world's most information-intensive corporations. For more information, please visit the company's Website at www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.
McDATA (Nasdaq: MCDTA/MCDT) is a global leader in open storage networking solutions and provides highly available, scalable and centrally managed storage area networks (SANs) that address enterprise-wide storage problems. McDATA's core-to-edge enterprise SAN solutions improve the reliability and availability of data to simplify SAN management and reduce the total cost of ownership. McDATA extensively pre-tests its solutions to provide IT organizations with the comprehensive tools, methodologies and support essential to robust SAN implementation. McDATA distributes its products through its OEMs, network of resellers and Elite Solution Partners. McDATA and the McDATA logo are registered trademarks of McDATA Corporation.
Norsk Tipping, The Norwegian National Lottery, offers a wide range of lotto, sports and instant games in the Norwegian market. The products are sold through a nationwide network of 4000 on-line retailers, with a total turnover in 2000 of NOK 8,3 billion ($950 million). Norsk Tipping is owned by the Norwegian government and was founded in 1948 to fund Norwegian sports facilities and scientific research. Today the company also raises money for culture causes. In 2001 Norsk Tipping will start to offer its products on the Internet. Please visit www.norsk-tipping.no.
¹ At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
Contacts: PR
Ludovic Leforestier, Hitachi Data Systems Europe, +44 (0) 1753 618 682, ludovic.leforestier@hds.com
Kathleen Sullivan, McDATA Corporation, +1 (303) 460-4435, Kathleen.Sullivan@mcdata.com
Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of (Hitachi, Ltd. Freedom Storage and Thunder 9200 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.
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