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Networking giant Lucent and storage specialist McDATA
will jointly develop offerings for enterprise and service provider data centers.
Financial terms of the pact between the Murray Hill, N.J., and Broomfield, Colo., companies were not disclosed.
The new product suite combines Lucent’s new OptiStar EdgeSwitch 2.0, an integrated optical IP and storage router, with McDATA’s core-to-edge storage networking line. The OptiStar EdgeSwitch extends Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) traffic, along with Ethernet-based LAN and network-attached storage traffic, over network backbones, and can enable high storage application performance over regional to intercontinental distances.
The joint product offerings are designed to address business continuity, disaster recovery, remote storage management, and outsourced storage and other services to large-scale enterprises. The end-to-end solutions can also simplify overall network architecture and improve data protection across the network, while providing a range of flexible and scalable deployment options.
A Lucent spokeswoman was not immediately available to provide further details of the pact.
Sterling Perrin, a senior analyst the research firm IDC, believes there’s a market for the product offerings.
“[The companies] are making it easier for enterprises and service providers to implement complex, end-to-end SANs that extend from the enterprise into the metro and even across metros, and which consist of various types of storage, switching, and optical networking equipment,” Perrin said.
Lucent will demonstrate secure storage networking over distance using OptiStar EdgeSwitch and McDATA Sphereon fabric switches at the SuperComm show in Atlanta in early June.
The partnership with McDATA reflects Lucent’s pursuit of “high-growth opportunities.” Since the equipment market has been depressed for two years, Lucent has expanded its scope (albeit in related areas) to offset lagging telecom infrastructure sales.
For example, yesterday the company trumpeted a $50 million services deal to help upgrade and support networks between Army bases in North America and Asia. A Lucent executive called the contract a “milestone.”
This story originally appeared on Internet News.
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