Munich, Germany, 04/2002

The explosive growth in the European storage infrastructure market has led  the move away from discrete data centres toward heterogeneous storage environments internetworking over long distances. These next-generation configurations require enhanced management, security, scalability and availability. Brocade's PSP Program enables its customers to work with authorised service providers who are among the leaders in the industry.

COMPAREX has been a Brocade Fabric Partner throughout Europe since September 2001. As a Brocade PSP, COMPAREX is now able to  leverage the Return on Investment (ROI) Assessment Methodology developed by Brocade, which allows companies to quickly and accurately measure the significant, quantifiable benefits gained through server and storage consolidation, centralised storage management, increased application and storage availability, increased SAN security and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The Brocade SOLUTIONware Library provides COMPAREX with a family of precise, application-specific implementation guidelines. Extensively tested model configurations simplify the integration and configuration of SAN solutions.

COMPAREX personnel have been trained as SAN professionals by Brocade and in addition offer in-house IT expertise in the fields of storage, applications and networking technology.
"The Brocade Professional Services Provider Program gives our partners and their customers access to a select group of professionals with extensive training in SAN analysis, design, implementation and management. These professionals provide consulting and management for large-scale SAN deployments," says Jean-Marie Mathiot, Brocade Vice President, EMEA. "COMPAREX can leverage Brocade technical, sales and marketing teams to deliver best-of-breed storage networking solutions to our mutual customers."

Background information on the Brocade Professional Services Program:
The Brocade PSP Program is designed for qualified consulting firms and system integrators that are committed to offering professional services in the area of SAN storage solutions. PSPs are trained in four core areas of SAN design and implementation using the Brocade SAN infrastructure, namely Strategy and Assessment, Architecture Design, SAN Implementation and SAN Management. As part of the certification process, Brocade PSPs train in large and advanced SAN configurations and the Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches. Coursework is offered by experts in the storage networking industry. Training takes place within the framework of Brocade Education Services. For information on the Brocade Professional Services Provider Program, e-mail profservices@brocade.com or visit www.brocade.com/education_services.

About COMPAREX
COMPAREX is an expert integrator of cost-efficient IT solutions. The group has offices throughout Europe (11 countries) and Southern Africa (3 countries) and employs approximately 5,500 people. COMPAREX is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (CPX) and has an annual turnover of about € 600m, half of which is generated in Europe. For more information visit us at www.comparex.de or www.comparexgroup.com COMPAREX Holdings Limited Registration number 1994/002506/06 Share code: CPX ISIN code: ZAE000016812

About  Brocade Communications Systems
Brocade offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimise data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the Brocade website at www.brocade.com.