NetApp Helps Partners Maximize Customer Value With New Authorized Professional Service Partner Program

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that it has reinforced its commitment to VIP Program partners with additional service opportunities as part of the new Authorized Professional Service Partner Program. The program encourages partners to sell and deliver their own brand of professional services for NetApp® data center solutions by utilizing NetApp best practices, tools and methodologies, comprehensive training, and implementation backup support. The Authorized Professional Service Partner Program strengthens channel partners’ role as trusted advisors for customers by providing a complete solution set to deliver maximum value for enterprise data centers.

The Authorized Professional Service Partner Program is designed specifically with channel partners in mind to provide an industry-leading professional service business proposition with compelling enablement resources focused on increasing the productivity and effectiveness of customer data centers. Partners who meet authorization requirements can do the following:

* Sell and deliver partner-branded professional services with their sale of NetApp technologies
* Specialize in one or more NetApp solution areas for deep market specialization
* Gain access to comprehensive hands-on training and proven service delivery methodologies and best practices
* Offer value-added services that strengthen customer relationships and increase revenue opportunities

The Authorized Professional Service Partner Program encourages partners to offer value-added services that not only strengthen customer relationships but also help transform their data centers in new ways that enhance their business. Partners stay in control of their customer relationships while delivering strategic value-added services that are tailored to NetApp products and solutions. Partners who want to achieve Authorized Professional Service Partner status can participate in one or more solution areas of their choice. Each solution area has its own clearly defined training path that helps technical teams achieve success.

As part of the program, participating partners receive secure access to the same solution-based service delivery tools, templates, and methodologies used by NetApp Global Services professional service teams. In addition, the program offers access to the NetApp Automated Storage Provisioning Engine application. This information-rich tool can be a key differentiator for partners in terms of productivity gains and customer satisfaction, enabling partners to design, deploy, and document from one source. This reduces manual tasks and eliminates margins for error, resulting in customer-quality deployment documentation within minutes.

“Leveraging NetApp service resources will strengthen, expand, and optimize our solutions offerings,” said Chris Pyle, CEO and president of Champion Solutions Group. “Champion has successfully completed the pilot requirements with Web-based and hands-on training and has acquired a license for the innovative NetApp Automated Storage Provisioning Engine to accelerate our delivery. Blended with Champion’s depth and breadth of virtualization expertise, NetApp and Champion bring new and dynamic storage virtualization solutions to our customers.”

“As an authorized partner in this program, we will have seamless access to service delivery tools, templates, and methodologies, maximizing our productivity, margins, and customer relationships,” said Tom Sylvester, CIO of Datalink. “Ultimately, we believe that this partnership will help us provide the highest level of service to our customers.”

“At the end of the day, our partner community wants to deliver services for their customers that extend our data center products and solutions,” said Leonard Iventosch, vice president of Global Channels at NetApp. “The single most important benefit we can offer partners is the opportunity to simply and effectively get more engaged with our customers. Opening up additional services opportunities is one of the best ways we can make this happen for our most trusted partners.”

In addition to the Authorized Professional Service Partner Program, NetApp announced new products, capabilities, and virtualization professional services to enable customers to transform their data centers. To learn more, read today’s separate press release at http://www.netapp.com/news/press/news_rel_20080212.

For more information on the Authorized Professional Service Partner Program, please visit www.netapp.com. Partners must be members in good standing of the NetApp VIP Program to qualify.