FICON to ESCON conundrum solution

Sep 29, 2005: Storage networking solution provider McDATA has announced the general availability of its Intrepid FICON Converter (IFC). Powered by Optica Technologies' Prizm module, IFC is the first product in the industry that performs native protocol conversion from FICON to ESCON that allows migration to switched FICON environments while protecting investments in legacy ESCON storage and peripheral devices.

Storage networking solution provider McDATA has announced the general availability of its Intrepid FICON Converter (IFC). Powered by Optica Technologies' Prizm module, IFC is the first product in the industry that performs native protocol conversion from FICON to ESCON that allows migration to switched FICON environments while protecting investments in legacy ESCON storage and peripheral devices.

Greg Schulz, senior analyst for the Evaluator Group said that until now ESCON customers have been faced with overly expensive and inconveniencing options when striving for greater network scalability achieved by FICON.

"By coupling its FICON services with an out-of-the-box solution, McDATA has eliminated the need for drastic 'rip and replace' conversions"

Migrating to new mainframes and operating systems doesn't replacement of ESCON infrastructure. IFC allows preservation of ESCON infrastructure by allowing those peripherals to work in FICON environments.

"Not only can customers take advantage of McDATA's extensive expertise in mainframe connectivity, they now have access to a solution that allows them to add FICON equipment into their ESCON environments, a piece at a time." Added Mr Schulz

McDATA claims IFC allows non-disruptive migration from ESCON to FICON environments, increasing storage network performance and lowering maintenance costs.

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