MANUFACTURING

Brocade Communications Systems, the world's leading provider of Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure solutions, today announced an expanded set of tools, utilities, and educational offerings designed to help its customers and partners to better design, administer, and manage SANs. Led by Brocade SAN Health, a powerful and innovative new SAN management tool that Brocade is providing free of charge to its customers and partners, these new offerings combine technical depth with practical advice on how to optimize new and existing SANs. SAN Health Leveraging years of experience helping SAN users implement and optimize SANs, Brocade created SAN Health as an easy-to-use tool that simplifies SAN analysis and common management tasks. SAN Health automates many time-consuming diagnostic tasks involved with SAN management and maintenance and enables IT professionals to identify potential problems and performance bottlenecks before they can impact daily operations. SAN Health also provides four important sets of information that IT professionals commonly require: -- A snapshot of inventory and switch configurations to help in tracking and documenting the change process and in planning for SAN expansion and upgrades -- A detailed, point-in-time topology diagram that shows the logical connections of all switches, connected devices, and Inter-Switch Links (ISLs), capturing the current topology and providing historical comparison for tracking and managing change -- Capture/display of historical performance data to monitor traffic pattern changes over time, assist in troubleshooting, and identify potential problems before they can impact operations -- Recommendations of best-practice guidelines to help optimize SAN performance Since the SAN Health utility has been available on the Brocade Connect Web site, more than 1,000 SAN Health reports have been provided to Brocade partners and SAN users. "Users can greatly benefit from tools that help increase SAN performance and productivity," said Randy Kerns, Senior Partner at Evaluator Group. "A free utility, like SAN Health, that enables users to tap into industry expertise for analysis and best-practices recommendations to improve SAN management and optimize resources, should prove to be a valuable resource." Brocade SAN users can access SAN Health by registering on Brocade Connect at www.brocade.com/sanhealth. Brocade Partners can access and share SAN Health with their customers through the Brocade Partner Network Web site, also accessed through www.brocade.com/sanhealth. Brocade Connect To further help SAN users build their proficiency and share best practices, Brocade has created an online resource center for the worldwide community of Brocade SAN users and storage managers. Brocade Connect is a virtual community of SAN users who can interact with their peers, access technical information and tools to optimize their productivity, and enhance their SAN investment through shared scripts and utilities. Resources on the Web portal include message boards, technical guides and manuals, release notes, product evaluations, newsletters, free utilities, and exclusive members-only offers. More than 13,000 Brocade customers are currently registered users of Brocade Connect. "Brocade Connect lets you access an incredible amount of technical resources in one site and connect with other users to find answers to your questions and share best practices," said Chad Kerner, Systems Engineer, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. "The free scripts and utilities written by Brocade and fellow SAN users are real time savers and valuable shortcuts also." New Education and Certification Programs; Industry's First Remote SAN Lab Brocade has also enhanced its industry-leading training and certification programs with the introduction of new Web-based tutorials, new virtual classroom offerings, and continually updated certification programs. In addition, Brocade created the industry's first remote SAN lab, which enables IT professionals to access a Brocade SAN training lab from anywhere in the world. To reduce travel time and time taken off work for training, Brocade Education has introduced a robust Web-based training portfolio. A portfolio of 22 classes takes learners through the features and functionalities of Brocade products and solutions, includes online knowledge assessment tests for Brocade certification exams, and provides best practices for optimizing SANs. Self-paced and easily accessed, the Web-based training gives IT professionals the flexibility to learn when and how they want. Brocade also recently launched its Virtual Classroom, which combines the best of classroom learning and online learning, featuring live instructor-led training over the Internet. This cost-effective method of learning has many benefits: -- Just-in-time training provided at the desktop anywhere in the world -- Live interactive training with expert instructors -- Training that is archived and can be accessed repeatedly after the live event Brocade also supports its partner and user communities with comprehensive certification programs, providing validation that individuals have the skills to design, implement, support, and manage SANs using Brocade SilkWorm switches, directors, and multiprotocol router platforms. The newly updated Brocade Certified SAN Designer (BCSD) exam indicates a mastery of the concepts and intricacies of building a SAN from basic components through the integration of industry applications and state-of-the-art storage technology solutions. What's Your SAN Plan Technical Seminar Series Brocade is also currently offering a free technical seminar series for SAN users and partners in 13 cities across North America through November 2004. The one-day "What's Your SAN Plan" program includes a morning seminar on deploying, extending, and managing SANs, followed by an afternoon training class designed to help SAN users prepare for the Brocade Certified Fabric Professional exam. Details are available at http://www.brocade.com/products/WYSP/seminars.jsp.