Finisar enters storage-over-IP market with iSCSI protocol support

May 16, 2001

May 17, 2001--Finisar Corporation announced its intention to support the emerging Internet Small Computer Systems Interface, or iSCSI, protocol standard across its SAN Analysis and Test products.

Finisar Corporation announced its intention to support the emerging Internet Small Computer Systems Interface, or iSCSI, protocol standard across its SAN Analysis and Test products.

Storage Over IP is an initiative to create alternatives to Fibre Channel for transmitting SCSI-based storage traffic using a protocol called iSCSI. With this announcement, Finisar apparently becomes the first provider of SAN protocol/network analysis products to support all of the current and emerging SAN topologies: Fibre Channel, Infiniband and now Storage Over IP. Finisar will leverage its technology and engineering expertise developed in the Fibre Channel and Infiniband markets to expand its merger into Storage over IP. Finisar will introduce iSCSI support in products to be released beginning in July through the end of 2001.

The first product to support iSCSI will be Surveyor 4.0 from Shomiti Systems, a recently acquired subsidiary of Finisar. Surveyor 4.0, Shomiti Systems comprehensive 7-layer network/protocol analysis and monitoring software, is designed to be used in conjunction with Shomiti's award winning 10/100/1Gb Ethernet THG hardware and features wire-speed capture and filtering of 10/100/1Gb Ethernet traffic over UTP and fiber links. Surveyor 4.0 will introduce complete and accurate decodes of the current iSCSI protocol draft standard in the release that enters Beta Testing in mid-May with a general availability date of July. Finisar plans to extend iSCSI support into it market and technology leading line of GT protocol analyzers, traffic generators and SANmetrics SAN analysis software products in the third and fourth calendar quarters of 2001.

About Finisar:

Finisar Corporation is a developer of fiber optic subsystems and network performance test systems which enable high-speed data communications over Gigabit Ethernet local area networks (LANs), Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs), metropolitan data network applications (MANs), and CATV. For more information, visit www.finisar.com.