MCDT Mcdata

New Product Will Improve Backup and Recovery Efforts across Multiple Storage Formats McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq: MCDTA)(Nasdaq: MCDT), a leading provider of data access solutions, today announced the availability of its Virtual Tape Library (VTL). The VTL is a disk-to-disk-to-tape solution that enables efficient backup leveraging both disk and tape media. It improves backup and restore performance and reliability while leveraging the current systems used. As the amount of data a company must store increases, these factors become more pronounced in a tape environment. "Many companies are required to fulfill regulatory obligations that go beyond what tape can provide," said Raj Das, vice president of product marketing, McDATA. "With the McDATA Virtual Tape Library, customers can get the functionality from their existing investments in tape while taking advantage of the features of disk providing faster more reliable backup and restore." Companies that utilize tape are limited in the amount of time they have to backup their data. Regulatory and corporate governance have contributed to larger amounts of data to protect and retain over longer periods of time. These increasing amounts of data lead to longer backup times that cannot be completed in the amount of time provided. If the backup is not complete, data can be missed in the process and this exposes the company to possible litigation and regulatory risks. Restore performance and reliability is also a significant challenge as organizations attempt to recover from data dispersed onto multiple physical tapes. The VTL emulates physical tape libraries and drives while using disk to improve backup and restore performance and reliability to help companies meet their backup and recovery objectives. McDATA VTL provides better accessibility in a reliable and secure fashion. Tape is a linear media that cannot be randomly accessed and must be rewound. It is subject to moisture, dirt and other physical damage that can compromise its reliability. Tapes can also be easily lost or stolen from facilities increasing security risks. Plus, the complexity of recovery in a remote site combined with the inherent reliability and performance limitations of tape magnify the challenges. The VTL solves these problems by leveraging any disk to emulate the physical tape media improving reliability and performance. The VTL can attach to physical libraries to import and export backup data to/from physical tapes, allowing portability without changing the data format so that the backup software can still read the physical tape without the product. Furthermore, it can replicate backup data across IP to easily enable off-site copies of virtual tapes. McDATA has vast experience working with both enterprise backup software and VTL and can help design and implement a system that maximizes local recovery, storage utilization and remote backup and recovery operations. The McDATA VTL is generally available through McDATA and select McDATA resellers. 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, 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.