SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade®) (Nasdaq: BRCD - News), a leading provider of data center solutions, today announced that the Brocade 48000 Director is now qualified for FICON® on the HP StorageWorks 4/256 SAN Director in XP storage array environments. Enterprises that rely on HP systems for their most critical data and applications can now benefit from the higher-performing enterprise SAN solutions for FICON and open system Fibre Channel for servers and storage.

"The outstanding reliability and performance of HP XP systems are critical for many enterprise applications," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of worldwide marketing. "Organizations that are looking to create next-generation solutions to deliver applications and protect vital data now have a complete end-to-end solution to rely upon."

To help protect the investment on the Brocade 48000, the 384-port director provides FICON/Fibre Channel intermix, FICON Control Unit Port (CUP), FICON cascading, for HP XP storage solutions in mainframe environments. The advanced custom-chip technology, at the heart of the Brocade 4 Gbit/sec family of SAN products, is optimized for lower power consumption per port than any other FICON/Fibre Channel director available today. As a result, Brocade estimates that the monthly cost of electrical power for the Brocade 48000 could be up to 66 percent lower than comparable port density directors that operate at just 2 Gbit/sec.(1)

"By adding FICON support to the HP SAN Director in XP storage environments, enterprise customers can achieve a higher level of performance for their business-critical data and applications," said Kyle Fitze, director of marketing, StorageWorks SAN Division, HP. "With support for both mainframe and open systems, customers are able to protect and optimize their investments in servers and storage."

Exceptional performance and reliability along with "five-nines" availability and enhanced security features provide stringent change controls and highly robust switch-to-switch authentication for cascaded FICON topologies. In addition, frame-level trunking now supports up to 32 Gbit/sec of bandwidth in cascaded configurations within the data center and between sites.

As the leader in bringing the next generation of storage networking performance to market, Brocade designed the Brocade 48000 Director and 4 Gbit/sec FICON/Fibre Channel switches to be fully compatible with existing Brocade storage network offerings. The products share a common code base and ensure "pay-as-you-grow" scalability and support for multiple protocols and transports. Brocade also offers the FICON-qualified, Brocade 4100 4 Gbit/sec midrange switch, which is designed to provide customers a complete range of FICON SAN solutions ranging from 16 to 384 ports.

For more information on the HP 4 Gbit/sec SAN product line visit: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/networking/b_switches/index.html.

(1) Enterprise Strategy Group, "ESG Lab Validation Report," March 2007.

The report is available at http://www.brocade.com/san/pdf/whitepapers/ESG%20Lab_Validation_Report_Brocade _VirtualFabric_WP_00.lr.pdf.

About Brocade

Brocade is the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, SAN Health, and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and 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.