Network Appliance Expands Open Storage Networking Solutions for Enterprise Data Backup and Recovery

Business Wire, May 8, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001

Partners with Industry Leaders to Offer Increased Data Protection

Solutions for FC SAN Environments

Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP), the leading provider of network-attached data access and content delivery solutions, today announced it is partnering with leading data protection companies to deploy its Fibre Channel (FC) Fabric Tape SAN (storage area network) Backup solution.

This solution extends the company's FC SAN capabilities to full fabric, complementing the company's existing solutions portfolio for IP and Fibre Channel storage networking, and leverages partnership work with the industry's leading data protection hardware and software companies. The solution also enables enterprises to leverage their existing infrastructures while realizing new backup alternatives. Most importantly, it enables customers to extend and enhance their tape backup and recovery capabilities, increasing the availability of mission-critical data at the heart of today's enterprise.

Data protection partners include ATL, BakBone Software, Brocade, CommVault, Legato, Quadratec, Spectra Logic, StorageTek, Syncsort, and VERITAS. Their products all have been tested and certified by Network Appliance on the FC Fabric Tape SAN Backup solution, ensuring complete interoperability between and among the various components in the fabric.

This new solution provides enterprises with diverse, powerful, and cost-effective tape backup and restore solutions for data, offering more flexibility by allowing seamless connection of multiple filers and multiple tape devices via a Fibre Channel switch with full-fabric support.

"Open storage networking is about customer choice," said Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance. "By offering expanded Fibre Channel SAN capabilities based on open standards and broad partner cooperation, we enable our customers to leverage their existing IT infrastructures, minimize total cost of ownership, and maximize investment returns, critical in this time of scrutinized technology spending. With our Fibre Channel tape backup solution, we now deploy seamlessly in a broader array of storage infrastructures with enhanced capabilities for both NAS and SAN deployments, and continue to focus on what our customers say is most important to them--high data availability, protection, and total cost of ownership."

In many ways, Network Appliance is enabling enterprises to converge their SAN and NAS solutions into an open storage networking approach by utilizing Fibre Channel switches and FC-connected tape libraries for data backup in conjunction with IP-based storage networks or as standalone storage networks. Network Appliance(TM) Data ONTAP(TM) 6.1 software retains centralized control of the open storage network, and coordinates the backup of multiple filers via third-party backup applications available from Network Appliance's data protection partners.

FC SAN Tape Backup Benefits:

-- High Performance - enables shorter backup windows by utilizing more tape
resources through fabric and dynamic drive sharing.

-- High Availability - end users now have multiple backup options that will
interoperate into their own respective storage environments and complement or
enhance hardware, software, and network investments already in place.

-- Scalability - scales from multiple gigabytes to hundreds of terabytes with
partner hardware and switch options.

-- Ease of use - tested and supported backup configurations make setup,
installation, and management simple and easy.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance, Inc., a veteran in network file storage and content delivery, 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 service providers, including Lycos, Yahoo!, Citicorp Securities, Siemens, Lockheed, Cisco, Motorola, and Texas Instruments have deployed NetApp(R) solutions.

The company pioneered the concept of the "network appliance," an extension of the industry trend toward dedicated, specialized products that perform a single function. NetApp's storage and content delivery platforms (filers and NetCache(TM) appliances) are coupled with powerful content distribution and reporting software. This center-to-edge(TM) solution offers seamless data management from the back-end data center to the edge of the network quickly, simply, and reliably. The Network Appliance product portfolio utilizes the company's innovative data access software, known as the Data ONTAP operating system, as well as standards-compliant hardware. It also offers multiprotocol support and transparent integration for UNIX(R) and Windows(R) environments.

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