NETWORK APPLIANCE LAUNCHES NEARSTORE R100.

Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP), a provider of enterprise storage solutions, has announced the availability of the first product in the NearStore family -- the NearStore R100. The NearStore product family, first announced in December 2001, consists of storage appliances for rapid data backup and recovery, archival of infrequently accessed files, and simplified data migration. Today, information access is critical to enterprise success, and NearStore solutions are a key component of successful business continuance and information retrieval architectures.

The NetApp NearStore R100 provides economical, scalable, and easily managed secondary storage that integrates seamlessly within enterprise network infrastructures. Consolidating backups with NearStore improves data protection management by enabling customers to back up both NetApp filers and non-NetApp systems to one appliance before archiving to tape. This two-stage backup process relieves primary storage from time-consuming direct backup to tape, increasing the availability of servers and storage for applications. When access to backup data is required, data recovery is much faster from NearStore than from traditional solutions, greatly reducing operational downtime and the associated business impacts.

"Recently, we saw a need to integrate a backup storage solution that was economical, scalable, and easily managed within our existing storage infrastructure," said Ed Yee, director of IT operations, nVidia Corporation. "In response, we investigated several storage options, carefully weighing cost and expected maintenance demands. In the final analysis, Network Appliance offered true ease of use, scalability, and high reliability for data storage."

Available in configurations scaling to 96TB, the NearStore R100 is also ideal for online archives of large or infrequently accessed information. Online archiving with NearStore enables businesses to lower total storage costs while providing ready access to important information. Examples of data well-suited for the NearStore R100 include 2D and 3D mechanical CAD drawings, integrated circuit design data, software modules and objects, CAT-scan and MRI images, historical financial information, telco billing records, and other business documents.

"Network Appliance's NearStore R100 will give our team quick and easy backup consolidation without moving to archived tape," said Kevin Timmons, director of operations, Yahoo! Inc. "Online archiving with the NearStore R100 will help us to lower total storage costs while providing ready access to important information."

"NearStore is well suited for storing redundant copies of data because of its large capacity, network connectivity, and interoperability with popular backup and replication software packages," says Michael Fisch, senior analyst at The Clipper Group. "For enterprises deploying business continuance or archiving solutions, NearStore R100 may be the right solution at the right price."

Also, Network Appliance and its storage partners have announced a series of solutions that address important enterprise issues including data backup and recovery, performance and management, e-mail storage growth, and information archiving. These solutions improve business applications, reduce operational costs, and facilitate integration of the NetApp NearStore R100 into customer storage environments. The participating partners include ADIC, Computer Associates, Connected, Enigma Data Systems, IXOS, Legato, Quantum|ATL, Spectra Logic, StorageTek, and VERITAS Software.