Network Appliance Honors Customers with First Annual NetApp Innovation Awards.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP), a leading provider of enterprise network storage solutions, honored the winners of the first annual NetApp(R) Innovation Awards at an award ceremony last night at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The NetApp Innovation Awards honor customers who have achieved positive business and/or community results using NetApp solutions, demonstrated creativity and conceptual leadership in storage and/or caching best practices, and embody the NetApp "can do" and "create a model company" spirit.

Over 170 nominees competed for awards in the following five categories: Innovator of the Year, Enterprise, Individual, Visionary, and Community Service. One winner and two finalists were selected in each category by a third-party panel of judges, consisting of distinguished business and technology experts from the media and industry analyst communities as well as academia.

The Innovator of the Year prize was awarded to Weta Digital, an Academy Award(R) winning visual effects facility based in Wellington, New Zealand. Weta Digital offers world-class visual effects for international feature films and commercials. The company is best known for its visual effects work on New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Renault F1 Team, responsible for the design, manufacture, and sourcing of all parts and the assembly, testing, and running of its racecars, was a finalist in the Innovator of the Year category.

In the Enterprise category, which honored organizations that have deployed NetApp solutions for a commercial business that has achieved a positive business impact, the winner was Oracle Corporation, the world's largest enterprise software company. Radio France, the first radio group in France, and Jefferson Pilot Financial, one of the nation's leading providers of universal and variable universal life insurance and fixed and indexed annuities, were finalists.

Mark Mayo, IT manager of BC Cancer Agency's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, won in the Individual category, which honors an individual within a customer organization who has achieved business success through innovation with NetApp solutions or has championed streamlined solutions within the IT organization. The BC Cancer Agency's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre deploys resources and technology of a high-throughput genome mapping and DNA sequencing lab to decrypt the genetic code, specifically to advance cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. Dale Defilippi, supervisor, System Technology, at IGT, a world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of microprocessor-based gaming and video lottery products and software systems, and Jeff Smith, CIO of Telstra, Australia's leading telecommunications and information services company, were finalists.

UZ Leuven, one of the largest healthcare providers in Europe, took home top honors in the Visionary category. The Visionary category recognizes a company or individual who is using new technologies or championing new technologies or implementations within the organization. SAS, the largest privately held software company in the world and the leader in business intelligence software and services, and FirstAssist, a leading UK health and well-being solutions provider, were honorable mentions.

Bashas', an Arizona retail grocery chain, was the winner in the Community Service category, which honors a NetApp customer that is giving something back to the community. Bashas' is a strong community partner in Arizona and gives back to the residents that need it most through several different programs. Bashas' hosts an electronic fundraising program called Thanks A Million, where customers can link their Bashas' Thank You Card (loyalty card) to a school, church, or nonprofit group, and 1% of their purchases goes back to the participating organization of their choice. Bashas' also gives more than $1 million annually to charities state-wide, through its foundation and Annual Golf Classic. The Regional Cancer Center, one of the largest freestanding community cancer centers in the United States, and MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve the well-being of low-income people, were finalists.

"The NetApp Innovation Award nominations and winners truly reflect the very best of our customers and demonstrate best practices in storage," said Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of Network Appliance. "It is very inspiring to see how our customers are deploying NetApp products and services and the value they bring to their businesses, customers, and communities. From NetCache(R) to the FAS series to NearStore(R), we really do have some amazing and successful customers doing innovative things with our solutions and realizing real-world enterprise benefits."

From the start, the NetApp Innovation Awards have relied on a prestigious third-party panel of judges. The awards distinguish themselves in the industry by adding outside expertise and a critical, unbiased assessment of real-world NetApp deployments at customer sites.

Innovation Award judges included Nick Allen, vice president and research director, Gartner Research; William P. Barnett, Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University; Pascal Boulard, editor-in-chief, La Tribune, daily newspaper in Paris, France; Peter Burrows, Silicon Valley senior editor, BusinessWeek; Brian Fonseca, senior writer, eWEEK; and Keith Liu, anchor of e and Generation e for CNBC Asia Pacific.

For more information about the awards and the 2004 winners, please visit http://www.netapp.com/go/innovation/.

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(TM) solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp, NetCache, and NearStore are registered trademarks and Network Appliance and The evolution of storage are trademarks 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.