Industry Analyst Report Showcases NetApp Market Success and Growth; NetApp Leader in iSCSI, Leader in NAS Capacity, Posts Fastest FC SAN Growth among Vendors Tracked

Business Wire, Dec 6, 2005

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) today announced that it has maintained its position as the market leader in iSCSI in both revenue and capacity since IDC began tracking the market, continued leadership in capacity market share in network-attached storage (NAS), and grown the most quickly among vendors tracked in the Fibre Channel (FC) storage area network (SAN) arena. According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker Q3 2005,(1) NetApp demonstrated continued leadership in the iSCSI storage market, with number-one market share in capacity shipped (38.4%) and revenue (35.1%). NetApp maintained leadership in its core NAS market, with a 44.3% capacity share. Finally, of the vendors tracked, NetApp posted the strongest year-over-year increase in FC SAN revenue, with a growth rate of 118%.

"IDC's market share numbers reflect customers' attraction to NetApp for a variety of enterprise storage needs," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. "Our continued leadership in NAS and iSCSI and our rapid growth in FC SAN demonstrate our commitment to our customers and the industry in providing world-class products and solutions that simplify complex IT environments. Our customers look to NetApp for our innovation using several technologies on a single platform and unique solutions to solve their data challenges."

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 simplify data management. Information about Network Appliance(TM) solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp is a registered trademark and Network Appliance is a trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. 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.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include market and market share trends that benefit the Company, continued customer acceptance and adoption rates of the Company's solutions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary. Factors that could impact our ability to achieve our goals include general economic and industry conditions, including expenditure trends for storage-related products; our ability to deliver new product architectures and products that meet market acceptance; our ability to design products that compete effectively from a price and performance perspective; and other important factors as described in Network Appliance, Inc.'s reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently submitted 10-K and 10-Q.

(1) IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker Q3 2005.