Austin, Texas 6/4/2007 9:20:39 PM
News / Business

Brocade and IBM Platform Selected by Melbourne IT to Scale for Business Growth

June 4 - http://www.stockwire.com Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), the leader in networked storage solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, announced that Melbourne IT has selected Brocade to streamline connectivity at its disaster recovery sites and increase the scalability of the Web and application hosting solutions provided under its WebCentral Corporate brand. Using Brocade 48000 Directors and Brocade Services, and working in close collaboration with Brocade OEM Partner IBM, Melbourne IT updated its Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure to scale up to meet the anticipated growth in the company's managed hosting business.

As a national service provider to corporate and government clients, WebCentral Corporate required the infrastructure capacity to scale up or down quickly to meet dynamic customer demands. At the same time, it needed a robust hardware solution to provide connectivity between its main data center and a separate disaster recovery site, both for internal business purposes and for ensuring uptime for its customers.

Melbourne IT chose Brocade for its routing capabilities, cross-site connectivity solutions for disaster recovery, and proven networked storage expertise -- from pre-sales and implementation to certification, training, and investment protection.

"Our WebCentral Corporate managed hosting business continues to achieve strong growth, particularly among large corporate and government organizations. Implementing SAN technology from Brocade and IBM is part of a wider infrastructure investment initiative that will provide the capacity to sustain current and future business growth opportunities," said Alec Lawson, CIO - Production and Infrastructure at Melbourne IT.

Brocade Services played a key role in the project, providing an onsite Brocade consultant to implement the solution and conduct regular SAN checks while auditing and monitoring performance.

"We engaged Melbourne IT and WebCentral Corporate in an extensive consultancy process from day one to build a strong understanding of their key business requirements and strategic focus, both for today and into the future," said Francois Vazille, IBM Storage Business Unit Executive. "With the assistance of Brocade Services, and underpinned by Brocade and IBM's leading SAN technology, we were able to demonstrate our joint offering as the best fit for their requirements."

"This win demonstrates the importance of having strong relationships with our valued OEM Partners -- in this case, IBM -- and of professional services as a key component in any storage solution," said Graham Schultz, Brocade Regional Manager, Australia and New Zealand. "Customers are seeing the value and depth of expertise we have in networked storage and know they can rely on us to architect and implement the right strategy to ensure their ongoing success."

About Melbourne IT

Melbourne IT Limited (ASX: MLB) is a world leader in the supply of domain name registration and other online solutions with a strong commitment to the delivery of high-value Internet services and Web-based solutions to organizations of all sizes across the globe. Melbourne IT was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1999 and has a network of offices in locations across the world.

In September 2006, Melbourne IT acquired Australia's largest web and application hosting company, WebCentral.

About Brocade

Brocade is the leading provider of networked storage solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information. 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-wing logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, Secure Fabric OS, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-weave symbol 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.

During pre-market trading shares are up .7% to $8.50.