Network Appliance Receives Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award From Stanford Business School Alumni

Business Wire, Nov 9, 2006

Award Recognizes the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Silicon Valley Companies

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was honored at a dinner as the 2006 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year by the Peninsula Chapter of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association. Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of Network Appliance, accepted the award on the company's behalf.

"As a company founded in the Valley, we take great pride in the entrepreneurial spirit of our roots and the drive to innovate and sense of community that reside in many Valley companies," said Warmenhoven. "We are honored to receive this award, because it represents all the employees of NetApp and the personal and individual ownership we take in building and sustaining a model company."

About the ENCORE Award

In the late 1970s, the Peninsula Chapter of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association saw an opportunity to recognize the entrepreneurial spirit of the companies that were springing up in Silicon Valley. The chapter created the Entrepreneur of the Year (ENCORE) Award, and the first honor was given to the CEO of California Microwave in 1978. After five years of honoring CEOs of innovative companies, it became clear that a company's success is based on the contributions of many people rather than one individual, so the award was changed to the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year. The ENCORE Award has been presented every year since 1978, and Apple was the first company to receive the honor twice Co in 1982, and again 23 years later in 2005.

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 and the Network Appliance logo are registered trademarks and Network Appliance is a trademark 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.