Network Appliance SnapMirror Software Enables Snowball.com to Replicate Database and Web Content Between Remote Data Centers

Business Wire, May 24, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2000

Eliminates Downtime During Data Center Consolidation

Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), the leading provider of network-attached data access and content management solutions, today announced that Snowball.com, the largest online network for Generation i and the companies that want to reach them, recently completed deployment of Network Appliance(TM) SnapMirror(TM) software. The SnapMirror remote mirroring application is a critical element in Snowball.com's efforts to eliminate downtime and increase availability of its Web sites during data center consolidations.

"SnapMirror is a very elegant way of mirroring data between filers. In case of an outage at the primary data center, we can now quickly redirect our users to the mirrored data ensuring that our Web sites are always available," explained Brion Moss, principal systems administrator for Snowball.com. "As an example, during a recent data center consolidation, we relied on SnapMirror to replicate databases across filers and we were also able to complete the migration with minimal downtime of business-critical databases."

Availability of the SnapMirror feature was a key reason Snowball.com selected the NetApp(R) filer over competing products. According to Moss, another key benefit of this solution is the Snapshot(TM) feature that allows Snowball.com to quickly take compressed backup images of all data without significantly impacting available disk space. Snowball.com also favored the NetApp filers because of their easy scalability and the ability to grow file systems dynamically by simply adding disks without affecting ongoing operations.

Snowball.com is a participant in the Network Appliance "Powered by Network Appliance" program, a branding initiative designed to foster business development and enhance the exposure of Internet companies with e-business driven strategies. Network Appliance powers nine of the top 10 ISPs and 13 out of the top 15 Web sites, and over 600 Internet customers worldwide.

About Snowball.com

Snowball.com (NASDAQ: SNOW) is the leading online network for Generation i and the companies that want to reach its population of Web-centric young adults. Snowball aggregates top Generation-i produced Web sites and brings its active Net-centric audience to companies that offer products and services targeted to the demographic. The company is consistently ranked by Media Metrix as one of the largest consolidated properties on the Internet. Its primary networks include ChickClick.com, IGN.com, and PowerStudents.com. Snowball.com is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., with locations in New York and Los Angeles.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance, a veteran in network file serving and caching, has been providing data access solutions since 1992, and is a member of both the S P 500 and NASDAQ 100 index. Major corporations and ISPs, including Lycos, Yahoo!, Citicorp Securities, Siemens, Lockheed, Cisco, Motorola, and Texas Instruments have deployed NetApp solutions. NetApp Internet caching solutions (NetCache(TM) appliances) and file servers (filers) deliver fast, simple, reliable, and cost-effective access to network-stored data and enable simultaneous shared file services for UNIX(R), Windows NT(R), and the World Wide Web.

The company pioneered the concept of the "network appliance," an extension of the industry trend toward dedicated, specialized products that perform a single function. Network Appliance filers and NetCache appliances are based on the company's innovative data access software known as the Data ONTAP(TM) operating system and standards-compliant hardware. More information is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp and the Network Appliance logo are registered trademarks and Network Appliance, SnapMirror, NetCache, and Data ONTAP are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.