Network Appliance Announces Global Service and Support Agreement for Lotus Software From IBM

Business Wire, Jan 28, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2002

Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP), the leading provider of network-attached data access and content delivery solutions, today announced a global service and support agreement for Lotus software from IBM for enterprise storage customers deploying Lotus Notes(TM) on NetApp(R) filers. The objective of the Global Service and Support agreement is to simplify the customer's service and support experience and significantly improve response time by providing a single path for problem resolution worldwide. Coordination of problem resolution between Network Appliance and IBM Lotus will be transparent to the customer.

In addition, the agreement provides an infrastructure for Lotus Notes customers to easily obtain Support from Network Appliance for installation, configuration, on going maintenance and product usage questions. Other benefits include direct voice access to support engineers, electronic service through chat and NOW "NetApp On the Web", and global support via four NetApp Support Centers.

"Our customers' requirement for the highest possible availability mandates quick and reliable response worldwide to their service and support problems." said Rich Clifton, Vice President of Commercial Marketing at Network Appliance. "This agreement benefits Lotus Notes customers who deploy Lotus Domino solutions on NetApp filers by providing a more comprehensive knowledge-base, and coordinated partner activity, globally, and around-the-clock."

By adding the deeper, highly coordinated, more rapid support to the outstanding reliability and availability of the combined IBM Lotus and NetApp products, this agreement allows customers to experience industry-leading service levels while enjoying the dramatic TCO advantages of these solutions. The increased availability is achieved by using the online backup and recovery capabilities of Network Appliance SnapShot technology, and SnapMirror(R) and SnapRestore(TM) software which improve overall Domino server availability whether for entry-level workgroup loads or multiple-terabyte heterogeneous enterprises.

Pricing and Availability

The global service and support is included in the price of the NetApp appliance and takes effect Immediately. NetApp Support Centers will respond to all severities levels 7 x 24 delivering the highest quality global support.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance, Inc., a leader in network data 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 Citicorp Securities, Lockheed, Merrill Lynch, Oracle, Texas Instruments, and Yahoo! utilize NetApp global data management 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 storage and content delivery platforms (filers and NetCache(R) 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(TM) operating system, as well as standards-compliant hardware. It also offers multiprotocol support and transparent integration for UNIX(R) and Windows(R) environments.

NetApp, NetCache, and SnapMirror are registered trademarks and Network Appliance, Center-to-Edge, SnapRestore, and Data ONTAP are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Lotus, Notes and Domino Server are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation and/or IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. IBM is a trademark of IBM Corporation. Their respective companies own all other trademarks.