Network Appliance Continues to Enhance and Extend Full-line Enterprise Portfolio; Ships New Heterogeneous Data Protection Solutions

Business Wire, Feb 18, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2003

Ships First iSCSI Product, Accelerating Shift to

Networked Storage for US$10B Market

Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP) announced new products, solutions, programs, and partnerships today that enhance and expand the company's extensive enterprise storage portfolio, bring powerful new functionality to customers, and broaden Network Appliance's market reach into a US$10 billion market for open systems direct-attach and internal storage.

New data protection solutions unveiled today provide superior backup and near-instantaneous, tape-free data restoration at a very low infrastructure cost for heterogeneous storage environments. These solutions from Network Appliance demonstrate the company's leadership in disk-based backup/restore solutions designed to maintain business continuance and prepare for disaster recovery. The cornerstones among the new solutions are the NearStore(TM) R150 system and SnapVault(TM) heterogeneous replication software. The R150 is the latest member of the NearStore family designed to simplify backup, accelerate recovery, and economically store reference and archival data. SnapVault is a software solution for extended and centralized disk-based backup of data, making it faster and simpler for multivendor storage environments to be backed up to and restored from a NearStore system. Endorsements and collaboration with the industry's backup/recovery software leaders extend both the SnapVault and NearStore appeal and impact.

Network Appliance also announced its first native iSCSI storage solution, in the form of iSCSI protocol support and host attach kits for NetApp(R) unified storage systems. iSCSI enables the creation of storage area networks (SANs) using pervasive Ethernet infrastructures, and is especially appealing in Windows(R) environments and new and emerging blade server and high-density server rack environments. By deploying iSCSI, customers can accelerate their storage consolidation plans with a cost-effective solution that leverages existing networking investments and extends into various parts of their enterprises with maximum flexibility. Research data from IDC indicates that open systems direct-attach and internal storage offers US$10 billion in market potential that Network Appliance believes iSCSI can open up for networked storage applications.

As Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance, noted, "Today's enterprise is data-intensive and demands fast, reliable, and economical storage solutions that reduce customer complexity, investment risk, and total cost of ownership. Through our close collaborations, we provide open, interoperable solutions that leverage the best advanced technologies available and help companies achieve their business objectives."

Santora continued, "Whether a customer is looking to protect, consolidate, or back up any data, Network Appliance offers the most comprehensive storage choices to fit that customer's unique compute environment, cost, and total solution purchase criteria. NetApp continues to deliver solutions that provide maximum ease of use at the lowest total cost by incorporating the latest technologies and protocols so that customers are able to leverage their existing investments."

Additional details are available in five separate press releases issued today by Network Appliance.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions for today's data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has delivered technology, product, and partner firsts that continue to drive the evolution of storage. Information about Network Appliance(TM) solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

Note to Editors: NetApp is a registered trademark and Network Appliance, NearStore, SnapVault, and The evolution of storage are trademarks of Network Appliance Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.