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BlueArc and Foundry Join Forces To Analyze, Deliver and Store MRI Scans for Higher Brain Function Research

Princeton's Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior (CSBMB) turns to leading storage and networking technologies to further neuroimaging data analysis

San Jose, Calif. - October 5, 2004 - BlueArc® Corporation, provider of the world's highest performance, most scalable network storage systems, and Foundry Networks®, Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior (CSBMB) at Princeton University has selected a solution from BlueArc and Foundry Networks to deliver a flexible computing environment for simulation modeling and analysis of neuroimaging data.

Over the past few years, the complexity of methods used to model brain functions and analyze neuroimaging datasets has increased significantly. In addition, since its creation in 1999, the CSBMB has expanded from supporting three university psychology laboratories to its current roster of twelve across a variety of departments, as well as collaborating with other universities and industrial laboratories.

These factors have created an exponential increase in the number of images being obtained by the CSBMB team from its MRI scanner. Compounded by rapidly-expanding image file sizes, very large data sets were being created, requiring an infrastructure capable of analyzing and storing the data quickly while dramatically improving the speed of client access. The CSBMB's previous system was not able to meet these needs or to adequately back-up the millions of files distributed across the group's network – presenting an increasingly high risk of data loss. This led the center to reevaluate its server and storage infrastructure and make the move to a new solution.

Following a detailed evaluation process involving several vendors, in the summer of 2003 the CSBMB selected an 11-terabyte SiliconServer from BlueArc for high performance network storage. In January of 2004, the CSBMB purchased a 64-node G5 Xserve cluster from Apple for image analysis and simulation modeling. Images from the group's MRI scanner are now stored on the BlueArc system, analyzed on the Xserve cluster, and routed through Foundry's high-performance, high-density Layer 2/3 FastIron Edge switch. In addition, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X clients can access the stored data from the BlueArc system as if it were a local disk, without any client modifications to hardware or software. By moving to a clustered compute server infrastructure backed by high performance network storage, the CSBMB has eliminated the group's issues with limited storage capacity and significantly improved the speed of image analysis software processing, while still supporting desktop applications on heterogeneous platforms.

"Volume of data is a big factor for us, particularly in light of the increasing size of images scanned at the center," said Randee Tengi, system administrator for the CSBMB. "We needed a platform to support that and needed to be sure that this investment would be relatively long-term. The combination of Apple's Xserve, BlueArc's SiliconServer and Foundry's FastIron Edge switch offered us a solution we could rely on to scale alongside our rapid growth – both now and in the future."

"Customers in the education and life sciences markets are finding that BlueArc storage offers the optimal combination of the performance and scalability they need to deliver rapid access to data and reduced project times," said Mike Gustafson, president of BlueArc. "Working with other technology leaders to provide this type of tailored solution gives us the ability to solve an ever broader range of issues for large organizations like Princeton University, giving both our customers and BlueArc new opportunities for business growth."

"The CSBMB is yet another example of customers moving to cluster computing and using high-performance low-latency Gigabit Ethernet as the compute-node interconnect to leverage their existing technical expertise," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager of Layer 2/3 switching and routing solutions for Foundry Networks. "Foundry's industry-leading switching throughput and low latency in cluster environments means that customers can avoid proprietary and expensive interconnect solutions and instead can leverage the performance, open standards, vast application support and ease of management of Ethernet."

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro routers and core routers. Foundry's customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynet.com.

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