New McDATA Eclipse SAN Router Features Improve Data Access with Patent-Pending QoS Capabilities

  
    
  
  
    
      McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA)(Nasdaq:MCDT) customers can gain even 
      greater scalability, availability, performance and security of Fibre 
      Channel (FC) and mixed protocol storage networks with the availability 
      of new bandwidth management techniques and advanced routing capabilities 
      for McDATA’s Eclipse SAN Router portfolio. The 
      enhancements to the McDATA Eclipse 2640, Eclipse 1620 and corresponding 
      management software give IT administrators the tools they need to 
      effectively manage and optimize the performance of multi-protocol, 
      multi-site and shared network infrastructures.
    
    
      “This latest release builds on McDATA’s 
      leadership in SAN routing and extension, enabling our customers to 
      realize even easier data access through more scalable and secure 
      distributed storage networks,” said Raj Das, 
      vice president of product marketing, McDATA. “By 
      adding new Quality of Service (QoS) features like our patent-pending 
      Adaptive Rate Limiting, Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and VLAN 
      Tagging, we can ensure high performance of all data flows and maximum 
      utilization of WAN bandwidth in shared network infrastructures, helping 
      customers meet demanding service levels while reducing costs.”
    
    
      McDATA’s Eclipse SAN Routers are designed to 
      meet a broad range of customer needs including SAN island integration, 
      business continuance and disaster recovery planning, storage 
      consolidation, remote tape vaulting, content distribution and iSCSI 
      access to Fibre Channel storage. The line’s 
      broad support of storage vendor applications and industry standards 
      gives customers flexibility to meet changing requirements with complete 
      investment protection.
    
    
      New features in McDATA’s Eclipse SAN Routers 
      include:
    
    
      
        Increased scalability and availability of FC-routed environments 
        through 2x scalability enhancements and new support for preferred 
        pathing and SAN router fail-over
      
      
        Improved WAN bandwidth utilization with new Adaptive Rate Limiting 
        capabilities, allowing links to dynamically adjust bandwidth rates to 
        leverage all available bandwidth on costly long haul links
      
      
        Additional QoS capabilities, including VLAN tagging and DSCP support 
        for applications extended over IP networks
      
      
        Increased management security with support for SSHv2, RADIUS-based 
        authentication and encryption of sensitive user information
      
    
    
      These new enhancements will be available through channel partners in 
      January 2007. Existing McDATA Eclipse customers with maintenance 
      contracts will be entitled to a free software upgrade. All new Eclipse 
      orders will automatically include these new features at no additional 
      charge.
    
    
      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 Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDTA)(Nasdaq:MCDT) customers can gain
even greater scalability, availability, performance and security of
Fibre Channel (FC) and mixed protocol storage networks with the
availability of new bandwidth management techniques and advanced
routing capabilities for McDATA's Eclipse SAN Router portfolio. The
enhancements to the McDATA Eclipse 2640, Eclipse 1620 and
corresponding management software give IT administrators the tools
they need to effectively manage and optimize the performance of
multi-protocol, multi-site and shared network infrastructures.

   "This latest release builds on McDATA's leadership in SAN routing
and extension, enabling our customers to realize even easier data
access through more scalable and secure distributed storage networks,"
said Raj Das, vice president of product marketing, McDATA. "By adding
new Quality of Service (QoS) features like our patent-pending Adaptive
Rate Limiting, Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and VLAN Tagging, we
can ensure high performance of all data flows and maximum utilization
of WAN bandwidth in shared network infrastructures, helping customers
meet demanding service levels while reducing costs."

   McDATA's Eclipse SAN Routers are designed to meet a broad range of
customer needs including SAN island integration, business continuance
and disaster recovery planning, storage consolidation, remote tape
vaulting, content distribution and iSCSI access to Fibre Channel
storage. The line's broad support of storage vendor applications and
industry standards gives customers flexibility to meet changing
requirements with complete investment protection.

   New features in McDATA's Eclipse SAN Routers include:

   --  Increased scalability and availability of FC-routed
        environments through 2x scalability enhancements and new
        support for preferred pathing and SAN router fail-over

   --  Improved WAN bandwidth utilization with new Adaptive Rate
        Limiting capabilities, allowing links to dynamically adjust
        bandwidth rates to leverage all available bandwidth on costly
        long haul links

   --  Additional QoS capabilities, including VLAN tagging and DSCP
        support for applications extended over IP networks

   --  Increased management security with support for SSHv2,
        RADIUS-based authentication and encryption of sensitive user
        information

   These new enhancements will be available through channel partners
in January 2007. Existing McDATA Eclipse customers with maintenance
contracts will be entitled to a free software upgrade. All new Eclipse
orders will automatically include these new features at no additional
charge.

   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.