NetApp Helps Customers Solve Data Backup, Recovery, and Protection Challenges; History of Innovation, New Products and Services, and Collaboration With Symantec Combine to Offer Industry's Most Comprehensive Disk-to-Disk Backup Portfolio

Business Wire, Feb 7, 2006

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) today announced a broad new array of products, technologies, and services designed to help customers find new ways to protect and manage their critical enterprise data -- without incurring significant new costs, dramatically altering their existing data management processes, or "ripping and replacing" existing infrastructure investments. Today's announcements highlight the broad range of NetApp(R) disk-to-disk backup and security solutions that simplify data backup procedures, improve recoverability, and lower backup infrastructure expenses.

Today's news also highlights NetApp initiatives to help customers realize the greatest possible benefit from their storage investments, including industry-leading capabilities to protect data stored on any vendor's storage systems; tight integration with all of the major backup and data management applications; extensions of the Decru(R) DataFort(TM) product line to provide the ultimate in data security; and the formal kickoff of the NetApp disk-to-disk backup campaign, designed to help customers extend the use of disk-to-disk data protection technologies into even more parts of their IT infrastructure.

New products unveiled today represent a significant expansion of the NetApp disk-to-disk backup family, including two offerings in the new NearStore(R) Virtual Tape Library (VTL) family, new Decru DataFort E-Series functionality for unified NAS-iSCSI protocol support, enhanced capabilities for NetApp customers to protect their remote office/branch office (ROBO) data as well as that in their data centers. Additionally, NetApp is collaborating with long-standing partner, Symantec, to enhance overall disk-to-disk backup designed to offer greater functionality for customers deploying NetApp with VERITAS NetBackup(R), now from Symantec. Complementary new services announced today include a VTL Design and Implementation Service, a Disaster Recovery Design and Implementation Service, and a Backup and Recovery Design and Implementation Service.

Join NetApp today at 10:00 a.m. PST for live online addresses from Dan Warmenhoven, CEO; Tom Mendoza, president; Dave Hitz, founder and executive vice president; Marina Levinson, vice president and chief information officer; and other NetApp experts. The event will also include a special guest appearance by Jeremy Burton, senior vice president of Data Management at Symantec. Visit www.netapp.com to participate in the online NetApp event and also register to participate in the first live chat for a news announcement in NetApp history.

"Our entire disk-to-disk backup family helps solve our customers' most pressing needs: managing huge and growing data volumes, protecting that data from a variety of threats and risks, and preserving uptime," said Warmenhoven. "We created the disk-to-disk backup market more than four years ago with the first NearStore product using inexpensive disks to provide enterprise protection. Today's announcements extend that leadership, offer more choice and flexibility to our customers, and bring credibility to the emerging VTL space. The net effects are simpler management and lower outlay costs -- as well as higher data availability -- which translate directly into bottom line payoffs."

"Disk-to-disk backup is ready for primetime," said Carl Greiner, senior vice president, Infrastructure at Ovum Inc. "Customers are growing frustrated at the limitations of tape and desire an approach that increases performance, offers much-needed simplicity, and maximizes the value they extract from their existing investments in data backup infrastructure."

New Products

The NetApp NearStore family debuted in 2001 and rapidly set the industry benchmark for economical, high-capacity data retention and data protection solutions, including disk-to-disk backup.

Today, the family has expanded with the addition of two NearStore VTL solutions -- the single-head NearStore VTL600 and the dual-head NearStore VTL1200. NearStore VTL is a dedicated, enterprise-class storage appliance that emulates physical tape libraries, stores large capacities of backup data on disk, and automatically copies data to physical tape under backup application control within any open systems storage environment. Both new systems are based on proven NetApp hardware and run NetApp VTL software, which integrates seamlessly with a wide range of storage management and backup software, including NetApp Data ONTAP(R). NearStore VTL is a compelling disk-to-disk backup solution for all open systems enterprise primary storage, including EMC, Hitachi, and IBM storage environments.

NearStore VTL is ideal for customers who want greater performance and simpler data management from their existing tape environments -- and to maximize a return on investment (ROI) from their substantial existing investments in a backup application and tape infrastructure. NearStore VTL delivers superior backup service levels and economic value with its groundbreaking Self-Tuning and Tape Smart Sizing technologies for dynamic workload balancing, 50% physical tape savings, high-speed physical tape creation, and enhanced data integrity. Additionally, NearStore VTL transparently integrates with Decru DataFort appliances for encryption of data on disk and tape for enterprise-wide data security.