Brocade, CA expand partnership to simplify data backup in networked storage environments

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc, the world`s leading provider of infrastructure for storage area networks (SANs), and Computer Associates International, Inc, the world`s leading provider of e-business management solutions, announced today an expansion of their partnership to further simplify data backup in their customers` networked storage environments.

The companies have accomplished this through both comprehensive interoperability testing and the publication of technical solution guides.

Effective data backup has become a serious challenge for companies struggling to protect ever-growing volumes of information on which they have become increasingly dependent. The complexity of networked storage environments - combined with IT departments` limited financial and human resources - have made it even more difficult to address that challenge. Through their partnership, Brocade and CA are easing these difficulties, enabling their customers to ensure business continuity without over-taxing their limited resources.

"Brocade and CA are working together to simplify SAN management and optimise business critical applications, such as data backup, for Brocade SAN infrastructure," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade Chief Marketing Officer. "As SANs become the ubiquitous infrastructure for business-critical storage applications and services, continuing to expand the management capabilities of the storage networking platform is crucial to enabling `always-on` information for the business."

"Our customers are facing a tremendous range of technology challenges, and only have so much time and money to spend addressing those challenges," said Gary McGuire, senior vice president, BrightStor solutions, CA. "Together, CA and Brocade are delivering both the solutions and the expertise necessary to ensure that they can succeed at protecting their critical data while still attending to all of their other pressing IT requirements."

Based on comprehensive testing, Brocade`s 1GB/s and 2GB/s SAN infrastructure solutions, including the SilkWorm 2400, 2800, 3200, and 3800, have been certified ca smart with the Serverless Backup Options and SAN Options of CA`s BrightStor ARCserve Backup and BrightStor Enterprise Backup solutions. The ca smart seal is earned by partners who deliver eBusiness value and technical excellence through the compatibility of their products with CA`s technologies. Brocade, through its Fabric Aware program, has conducted its own successful interoperability testing of CA`s BrightStor Enterprise Backup and BrightStor ARCserve Backup. To be verified Fabric Aware, products must successfully interoperate 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 that features a heterogeneous SAN fabric, in which the company tests and validates partner equipment in specific configurations.

Working seamlessly together and with other vendor solutions, Brocade switches and CA`s BrightStor solutions further improve the efficiency, manageability and performance of customers` business-critical storage infrastructures.

Brocade and CA have also published solution guides - SAN Server-Less Extended Copy Backup with CA`s BrightStor Enterprise Backup on Windows 2000 and Dynamic Tape Device Sharing with BrightStor ARCserve 2000 in the Storage Area - designed to ease the implementation of server-free data backup for enterprise customers. The guides are available free of charge through the Brocade SAN Info Center, at http://www.brocade.com/products/s_search.jhtml and on CA`s Web site at http://support.ca.com/BrightStorEBsupp.html and http://support.ca.com/arcserve2000supp.html.

CA will be demonstrating solutions on Brocade infrastructure in booth number 25 at the upcoming Brocade annual customer conference, Brocade Conference 2002: The Networking Storage Event in Las Vegas, 3 to 5 June.