Newest Addition to SilkWorm Product Family Provides Modular Building Block for Storage Area Networking Customers
STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD, ORLANDO, Florida — October 29, 2002 — Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade®) (Nasdaq: BRCD), the world's leading provider of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), and Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), announced today that the Brocade SilkWorm® 3900 32-port Enterprise Fabric Switch is now available worldwide from Hitachi Data Systems. Delivering industry-leading value-per-port, the SilkWorm 3900 is a modular building block for starting and growing small-to-medium enterprise SANs. When combined with Hitachi Freedom StorageTM Lightning 9900™ V Series and Thunder 9200™ storage systems, the SilkWorm 3900 offers enterprise scalability, manageability, and high availability as well as the attractive pricing, modularity, and simplicity required for smaller environments. With the addition of the SilkWorm 3900, Hitachi Data Systems now offers the full range of Brocade storage networking products.
"As an innovator in data storage and data management solutions, Hitachi Data Systems is pleased to offer the enterprise scalability and manageability of Brocade-based SANs to our customers worldwide," said Scott Genereux, vice president, Global Marketing, Business Development, Hitachi Data Systems. The 2GB/sec SilkWorm 3900 is an attractively priced networking infrastructure for a wide range of enterprises interested in acquiring the benefits SANs provide. The combination of our Hitachi Freedom Storage systems and Brocade SAN infrastructure provides an ideal environment for all storage customers — from entry through the enterprise."
"We are pleased that Hitachi Data Systems is supporting the launch of the Brocade SilkWorm 3900 by making the product available to its worldwide customer base," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade Chief Marketing Officer. "The SilkWorm 3900 lowers the entry cost on 2GB/sec SAN technology for a wide variety of medium and large enterprises looking for products that enable the easy expansion of evolving storage networks. Making the SilkWorm 3900 part of the Hitachi Freedom Storage environment will provide enterprises with the simplicity that is required for smaller environments and the flexibility to build their SANs at the pace at which they grow."
The SilkWorm 3900 brings together the best of Brocade entry-to-enterprise features and is a modular building block for a departmental network that can easily function as an edge switch within an enterprise core-to-edge SAN. Based on the same third-generation ASIC technology as the rest of the SilkWorm product family, it delivers proven Brocade advanced-fabric services allowing for simplified management, improved cost effectiveness, increased performance, higher availability, increased reliability, and enhanced security. Information on the SilkWorm 3900 can be found at http://www.brocade.com/products/silkworm/silkworm_3900/index.jhtml.
Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth™ strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances.
With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries and regions on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion*). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.
*At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.
Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm® family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.
Brocade, the B weave logo and SilkWorm are registered trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners. All products, plans, and dates are subject to change without notice.
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970-1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com
Freedom Storage, Lightning 9900, and Thunder 9200 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.
© Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd.
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