Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced the newest addition to its data management portfolio—the NetApp? V-Series family. V-Series systems enable customers to extend the complete suite of groundbreaking dynamic virtualization capabilities delivered in NetApp Data ONTAP™ 7G software to third-party storage products from HDS, HP, IBM, and Sun. The unique virtualization capabilities of V-Series systems translate directly into customer cost savings and a more intelligent, fluid approach to storage asset utilization that accommodates shifting business demands.

The complete portfolio of NetApp data management applications, including application-optimized SnapManager® for Microsoft® Exchange and SnapManager for Microsoft SQL Server, is now available to heterogeneous environments through NetApp V-Series systems. V-Series systems enable the capabilities that enterprise IT environments need to rapidly accommodate emerging business needs, including heterogeneous storage consolidation, rapid provisioning, increased utilization and virtual cloning, near-instantaneous data recovery, disk-based backup, asynchronous and synchronous network independent replication for online disaster recovery, improved adherence to corporate governance requirements, virus protection, and integration with leading applications.

Today customers are facing poor asset utilization, complex storage management, a lack of business agility, and a rising total cost of ownership (TCO). The NetApp V-Series addresses these challenges with next-generation virtualization technology that simplifies management and reduces costs. V-Series systems facilitate a single, powerful, flexible management paradigm that replaces the cumbersome management procedures of conventional arrays.

V-Series Customer Benefits

• Simplifies storage provisioning and management
• Lowers storage management and operating costs
• Increases storage utilization and decreases the need for added capacity
• Provides comprehensive, simple-to-use data protection solutions
• Improves business practices and operational efficiency
• Transforms conventional storage systems into a single storage pool

“Combined with the advanced virtualization capabilities of Data ONTAP 7G, the NetApp V-Series family offers customers the most comprehensive and sophisticated virtualization engine available,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. “The V-Series represents a true break from the past of ‘NAS gateways’ or ‘storage routers,’ and offers customers new levels of performance, scalability, and data protection. The V-Series represents the benchmark against which other vendors’ solutions should be measured, and I challenge all our competitors to meet the broad array of customer pain points addressed by this solution.”

Rogers continued, “We believe that any customer looking for an advanced virtualization solution should demand the following from its storage vendor: dynamic virtualization of block and file data in the same device with consistent management; true multivendor or heterogeneous virtualization; a comprehensive suite of offerings to simplify provisioning and maximize storage utilization, which includes thin provisioning and space efficient cloning; a robust portfolio of proven data management software for sharing, consolidating, protecting, and recovering mission critical data; a network-based architecture enabling seamless integration with existing storage; and a proven architecture for horizontal scaling of systems as business needs change or expand. NetApp is confident that only our solution offers this portfolio of capabilities and resulting business benefits.”

Pricing and Availability

NetApp V-Series systems are available immediately. Pricing is available upon request from NetApp sales or NetApp distribution and channel partners.

More detailed information and technical specifications are available at http://www.netapp.com/products/virtualization.