Demonstrates Interoperability in Heterogeneous Brocade-Based SAN Environments

El Segundo, Calif., November 11, 2002 – Imperial Technology, the company accelerating application performance, announced today that it’s 2Gbps SANaccelerator has been verified by Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. as interoperable with Brocade-based Storage Area Networking (SAN) infrastructure in testing conducted through the Brocade Fabric Aware Program, a comprehensive testing and configuration initiative designed to foster end-to-end SAN interoperability in multi-vendor Brocade-based SAN environments.

Testing was conducted at the Brocade interoperability labs, which are state-of-the-art facilities supporting end-to-end interoperability and performance testing of SAN products in multi-vendor and large fabric SAN environments.  The Brocade Fabric Aware Program has added more than 40 partners since its launch in 2000.  In addition, as part of its investment in SAN interoperability, Brocade actively supports its partners’ interoperability initiatives.

“The importance of interoperability within open SAN environments cannot be underestimated and we are pleased the SANaccelerator successfully completed interoperability testing with the Brocade family of industry-leading fabric switches,” said Robert David, CEO and president of Imperial Technology.  “As a member of the Fabric Aware program since 2001, we are also happy to have completed interoperability testing of our 2Gbps interface with the SilkWorm® 12000 and SilkWorm 3800.”

Imperial’s SANaccelerator eliminates I/O bottlenecks in SANs by providing access to data hundreds of times faster than conventional rotating disk drives.  The devices act as superchargers for application performance, increasing the transfer rate for the small block transfers commonly seen in database environments without the expense of rewriting applications or upgrading to faster servers. The systems are easily partitioned and managed through SAN Access, Imperial’s LUN Masking solution, to take advantage of SAN-based storage virtualization or heterogeneous host connectivity.

“We are pleased that Imperial SANaccelerator has successfully completed the Fabric Aware testing with Brocade fabric switches in heterogeneous SAN environments,” said Jay Kidd, Brocade vice president of Product Marketing.  “Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high performance networking foundation for storage environments. End users are implementing large fabric SANs comprising hundreds of storage subsystems, servers, and networking technologies, all from multiple vendors. The Fabric Aware program is an example of our continued investment in delivering end-to-end SAN interoperability to our partners and their customers.”

About the Brocade Fabric Aware Program
The Brocade Fabric Aware program is a comprehensive testing and configuration initiative designed to foster end-to-end SAN interoperability in multi-vendor storage networking environments.  As part of the program, companies agree to test in SAN configurations that comprise a heterogeneous mix of servers, storage subsystems, Brocade fabric switches, and other SAN technologies.  Brocade has created an interoperability lab comprising a heterogeneous SAN fabric, in which the company tests and validates partner equipment in specific configurations.  Vendors receive Brocade Fabric Aware qualification after completing tests to confirm that vendors’ products meet interoperability guidelines.  For more information on the Brocade Fabric Aware Program, visit http://www.brocade.com/partners/fabric_aware_program.jhtml.

About Imperial Technology Inc.
Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Imperial Technology has over twenty years experience delivering high-performance storage systems that shatter I/O bottlenecks and supercharge performance. Imperial solutions are used throughout the world in all types of businesses to achieve the highest performance available from critical applications.  MegaRam systems are installed on Sun, HP, Compaq, Dell, IBM, and Unisys systems and integrate seamlessly in environments that run Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Sybase (NASDAQ: SYBS), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Veritas (NASDAQ: VRTS) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) products. Imperial Technology can be reached at (800) 451-0666 or online at www.imperialtechnology.com.

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