Lucent, McData Target Data Centers

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 Internet Protocol and storage router, with McData’s core-to-edge storage networking line.

It addresses business continuity, disaster recovery, remote storage management and outsourced storage as well as enables high storage application performance over regional to intercontinental distances.

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.

“(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.”