Network Appliance Announces Key Partnerships for Compliance Data Storage.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 23, 2003

NetApp(R) Compliance Solution Gains Momentum as Top Data Management

and Archival Applications Rapidly Support SnapLock(TM) Compliance

Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP), a leading provider of enterprise network storage solutions, today announced that leading application partners in the compliance data space are shipping solutions that support its SnapLock Compliance solution. The companies supporting SnapLock Compliance today include CYA Technologies, Documentum, EDUCOM TS Inc., Enigma Data Systems, KVS, Princeton Softech, IXOS, iLumin, AXS-One and Legato. Application partners committed to supporting SnapLock Compliance include FileNet, FileTek, TOWER Technology, CommVault Systems, OpenText, LaserFiche Document Imaging and Optika.

Network Appliance partners' certified and tested applications enable organizations to safely comply with the growing number of existing and new regulations requiring the retention and management of e-mail, documents, database data and other corporate records. Such regulations include SEC Rule 17a-4 for securities broker/dealers, HIPAA for healthcare companies, Sarbanes-Oxley for all public companies with more than $75 million in equity market capitalization, and 21 CFR Part 11 for pharmaceutical companies.

"The rapid support of SnapLock Compliance by numerous companies proves the NetApp compliance data solution is a major force in storage for compliance," said Jamie Gruener, senior analyst, The Yankee Group. "Today NetApp is the only vendor delivering fast, magnetic disk WORM storage via open standard protocols, with solid access security, and across multiple classes of storage and disks. SnapLock Compliance software combined with NearStore(R) and/or FAS systems provides organizations with an attractive and wide range of NetApp compliance storage platforms in terms of capacity and performance, all running on the same compatible NetApp operating system. This is a win for customers, application vendors, and NetApp."

Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance, noted the ease with which partners have been able to integrate with SnapLock Compliance, which supports open protocols and does not require the use of a proprietary API: "We shipped SnapLock Compliance in May and already have robust partner support and key solutions certifications less than two months later, with more on the way. Because SnapLock Compliance runs on Data ONTAP(TM), our customers and partners know they can count on the optimized performance, reliability, and simplicity we have always delivered, as well as our mature data protection and security features. As regulations make data storage not only critical for business functions and processes but also for legal compliance, NetApp is delivering enterprise solutions that meet a broad variety of data needs--with one common architecture that makes data management, migration, retention, and retrieval simple and cost-effective."

"Customers see Documentum's enterprise content management (ECM) solutions as a way to achieve better corporate governance and compliance with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3 and 17a-4," said Jay DeWalt, vice president of partner management for Documentum. "Compliant storage is becoming a key part of the solution for more and more of our customers, and protecting the integrity of content is key to all these regulations. Customers can rely on Documentum and Network Appliance(TM) SnapLock to give them non-erasable, non-rewriteable storage for their content infrastructure."

NetApp also noted that some partners are already supporting SnapLock Compliance record-level retention dates. "Integration with SnapLock Compliance was very easy for us, including supporting the retention dates," said Mary Kay Roberto, Vice-President and General Mgr of North America, for KVS Inc. "We are also impressed with the speed of the NetApp storage system-- when our market-leading Enterprise Vault email management software is combined with NetApp SnapLock Compliance, it creates a highly scalable solution for medium size and enterprise customers."

Market Background

Most customers requiring write-once read-many (WORM) storage deploy it with specific applications for managing, archiving, retrieving, and later deleting the compliance data. The most popular applications in this area are e-mail archival, content management, records management, database archival and data migration software. Increasing regulatory scope and an explosive growth in the amount of information created each year are making traditional WORM storage technologies obsolete.

As this happens, application vendors in the regulatory compliance space and customers affected by new regulations have been seeking storage solutions that are faster, more scalable, more reliable, and less expensive to manage than optical or tape storage libraries.

First shipped in May 2003, SnapLock Compliance's WORM capability, automatic data verification, and strong security features make it ideal for almost all types of compliance data, as well as for protecting the integrity of any business records that must be retained accurately for long periods of time. SnapLock Compliance is available on NetApp NearStore systems and on most of the company's enterprise storage systems.

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

NetApp and NearStore are registered trademarks and Network Appliance, SnapLock, Data ONTAP 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.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1955

The statement regarding future product support are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1955. Forward-looking statements include any statement regarding future events or future financial performance of Network Appliance, Inc. that involve risk or uncertainties. In evaluating these statements readers should specifically consider various factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated, including without limitation, continuing decline in the general economic conditions, product schedules, product availability, customer demand for products and services, customer acceptance of product architectures, increased competition, and other important factors as described in Network Appliance, Inc. reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recently submitted 10-K and 10-Q.