Finisar Corporation, in fiber optic solutions for high-speed networks, and A*STAR Data Storage Institute (DSI) of Singapore, announced a partnership to bring world-class storage area network (SAN) training to Asia and Singapore. The agreement unites the SAN expertise of Finisar's Medusa Labs with the unique training capabilities of DSI's Network Storage Technology (NST) division.

This partnership is in line with DSI's plans to establish Singapore as a regional training hub for storage network technologies. It aims to promote awareness of SAN technologies and best practices for storage networking in Asia/Pacific through technical education. DSI-Medusa Training Centre, the first in the Asia Pacific region, will serve to enhance the protocol knowledge and skill sets of storage technology professionals. The technical courses, designed by Medusa Labs, will be conducted at DSI's Network Storage Laboratory by Medusa Certified DSI instructors.

The inaugural DSI-Medusa Training Centre class is scheduled for June 2008. To register for an upcoming SAN Protocol training course in Asia or Singapore, students are invited to visit the DSI-Medusa Training Centre website.

"We are pleased that Finisar's Medusa Labs, the recognized leader in SAN and Fibre Channel training, will partner with DSI to extend their technical training to include storage protocols," said Mr. Eric Tan, Director of Asia Sales, Finisar Corporation. "We are especially impressed with DSI's talented team and state-of-the-art training facilities and are excited that students from Asia/Pacific will receive a world class educational experience."

For more than a decade, Finisar's Medusa Labs has provided professional instruction on all major storage protocols, including Fibre Channel, iSCSI and SAS in the United States. Protocol training can range from understanding basic Fibre Channel architecture to focused in-depth studies and mastering debugging techniques. Classes are designed to provide a hands-on learning environment enabling students to analyze real-time traffic using the best protocol analyzers and the latest measurement tools.

"We are happy that DSI's NST division will offer Medusa Labs courses in Singapore and Asia. We have a heterogeneous network storage interoperability laboratory, which houses a diversity of network storage systems and components. The Network Storage Laboratory's learning environment is especially designed for highly accelerated testing, interoperability, and performance verification of enterprise products and solutions," said Professor Chong Tow Chong, Executive Director of DSI.

Mr Lim Swee Nian, Executive Director (Electronics) of Singapore Economic Development Board said: "We are pleased that Finisar's Medusa Labs has chosen Data Storage Institute as a partner to offer SAN protocol training to storage technology professionals in the region. This will help augment our capabilities in areas such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI and SAS, and is in line with EDB's strategy of extending our strengths in the enterprise hard disk drive arena to the fast growing network storage systems segment."