News and Events

2004

FORCE10 NETWORKS ADDS VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES TO RAPIDLY EXPANDING WORLDWIDE SALES TEAM

MILPITAS, Calif., November 1, 2004 — Force10 Networks today announced that it has named John Erdman vice president of strategic alliances. Erdman, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience developing and managing global channels and alliances, joins Force10’s rapidly expanding sales team to build strategic partnerships. During the second half of 2004, Force10 expects to double its worldwide sales force.

“We see the market potential for the Force10 TeraScale E-Series significantly expanding across all of our markets, and John will be an instrumental player in developing the global relationships necessary to identify and compete for every opportunity,” said Mark Cooper, Force10 vice president of sales. “John brings the ideal blend of experience and market knowledge necessary to fully develop a global strategic alliance program.”

Erdman was previously vice president of global channel sales at Enterasys. Earlier he managed the account and reseller base at Bay Networks, which was acquired by Nortel Networks. Following the acquisition, Erdman served as director of North American distribution for Nortel. He also was responsible for building channel programs at IBM and 3Com Corporation.

“Force10 has the strong fundamentals a company needs to accelerate a world class strategic alliance program,” said Erdman. “The company’s existing partnerships with IBM, Dell, CTC and Hitachi, along with an installed customer base of tier one enterprises, research environments and service providers, place Force10 in an enviable position for sustainable long-term growth across key industries and markets.”

Force10 recently introduced the TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers that supports an unprecedented 672 line-rate Gigabit and 56 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis. In addition to setting density benchmarks, the TeraScale E-Series can also process one billion packets per second, setting a new standard in performance. With the industry’s highest densities and throughput, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series processes more traffic on a single switch, reducing capital and operational expenses.

Force10’s worldwide sales force expansion comes as the company is increasing its diverse customer base. Government organizations, such as the Department of Homeland Security and NASA, and enterprises, such as Veritas DGC, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and the European Centre for Mid-Range Weather Forecasting, have deployed the E-Series to increase network performance. Leading telecommunications service providers, including Hanaro Telecom, Biglobe and NTT-ME, are leveraging the scalability of the E-Series to add subscribers. And research environments such as TeraGrid, the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) and Lawrence Berkeley Labs are increasing processing power with the E-Series.

Contact:
Peter Ruzicka
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5151
pruzicka@force10networks.com

Contact:
Jennifer Arculeo
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5194
jarculeo@force10networks.com

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10’s TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world’s largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Force10 Networks and E-Series are registered trademarks, and P-Series, S-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.