Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that it has extended its position in the NAS and unified storage market. According to Gartner’s report “Market Share: NAS/Unified Storage, Worldwide, 2000-2005,” the total NAS and unified storage market grew 16.1% in 2005. NetApp grew more quickly than the market, posting annual revenue growth of 22.4%. According to Gartner, the company increased its market share from 52.4% in 2004 to 55.2% in 2005.

NetApp leads in both the high-end and midrange parts of the market, with 88.9% market share and 70.5% market share by revenue respectively. Additionally, NetApp revenue for NAS/Unified Storage Gateways grew faster than the market from 2005.

“With NetApp® unified storage, customers can consolidate, standardize, and centrally manage both SAN and NAS storage to simplify complex IT environments and dramatically reduce total cost of ownership,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. “By offering storage solutions that maximize our customers’ investments and simultaneously support Fibre Channel SAN, IP SAN (iSCSI), and network-attached storage, NetApp can continue to address changing business needs as storage technologies evolve.”