Features - Storage Innovations:

FINISAR INTRODUCES NEW NETWORK ANALYZER PLATFORM SOLUTIONS

Finisar Corp -- a provider of high performance network tools for SANs, LANs and MANs -- announced a series of new Xgig analysis solutions to advance Fibre Channel and Storage Area Network (SAN) development. These solutions allow customers to more efficiently design, develop and analyze SAN components and storage solutions.

Finisar's Xgig Analyzer platform is comprised of software, blades and a hardware chassis (rackmount, table top or laptop field service) unit. The latest enhancements to this platform provide SAN architects, Field Service Engineers and Test engineers with the ability to support the latest Fibre Channel speeds: 1, 2, 4 and 10 Gb Fibre Channel, as well as provide high channel count support of up to 64 ports.

Both these items are firsts in the industry, providing end users with the ability to develop and create leading-edge Storage Area Networking products. In addition, Finisar's Xgig Analyzer blades now provide enhanced "multifunctionality" allowing users to gain more value from their existing Finisar Xgig products and analyzer blades while reducing the need for physical hardware.

"With a commanding market share in the fibre channel test arena, to say that Finisar dominated the market in 2003 would clearly be an understatement. Finisar truly espouses the cause of market leadership through its consistent product innovation efforts and innovative marketing strategies. With the introduction of new test products in the 4 and 10 Gigabyte ranges, Finisar's XGIG product line has become truly comprehensive, providing a vast range of testing solutions to equipment manufacturers and service providers in the fibre channel arena. Going forward, Finisar's enhanced product portfolio is expected to cater to the Storage Area Network -- Fibre Channel Tester market migration from 2 to 4 Gigabytes and beyond. This is likely to secure the company's market position in the industry in the future," said Sankar Prakash, analyst with Frost & Sullivan.

Finisar's latest Xgig's analyzer blade solutions provide the following functions:

• Support for 4Gb Fibre Channel with 4 port blade and 1Gb memory per port.
• Support for 10Gb Fibre Channel with 2 port blade and 2Gb memory per port
• Ability to analyze 1,2 Gb Fibre Channel networks and GigE (iSCSI, FCIP, FCP, etc) networks in the same blade.
• Change from 1,2 Gb Fibre Channel or GigE Analyzer to Fibre Channel or GigE error injector (FC or GigE) in the same blade.
• Dynamic Configuration of Blade Functionality via Discovery Dialog.
• High Channel Count -- 2 to 64 ports in a SYNC group with support of 1 to 4 Xgig chassis in cascade configuration.
• Selection of any predefined port groups or user defined port groups with a single click.
• Users under maintenance contracts can change their current Xgig analyzer blades into various multi-functions without purchasing additional hardware.

"Finisar's Xgig analyzer is a testament to the strength of Finisar's market leadership," said Kevin Cornell, senior vice president and general manager of the Network Tools Division at Finisar. "We will continue to offer best-inclass products and superior technology to enable our customers to design and create better multi-protocol Storage Area Networking solutions."