McData, IBM Extend Storage Gear Partnership

Storage gear provider McData has signed a new OEM
contract with IBM that will improve its ability to
sell data switches and directors in Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

IBM will sell McData Sphereon fabric switches and Intrepid directors, as
well as its Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager software under its
TotalStorage brand in a deal geared to boost the company’s footprint
overseas.

Big Blue, which will also provide maintenance and support for McData’s
products, benefits from being able to offer customers switches and
directors. McData’s products are used to route data more efficiently across
storage area networks (SAN) .

Brian Logan, vice president of sales operations for McData, said the deal may be reevaluated to include other
products in the future. Neither company disclosed a value for
the contract.

Logan said McData and IBM currently have a reseller agreement in which IBM
resells McData SAN products through IBM’s sales force.

“IBM will now provide integrated solutions under its TotalStorage brand,”
Logan told internetnews.com. “This is an important an strategic
positioning for McData because the greater expansion of geography will help
pull more product and show a strengthening of McData’s relationship with
IBM.”

McData competes with Cisco Systems and Brocade
Communications Systems in the market for infrastructure
gear and gadgets that help data zip along SANs with multiple components.