NetApp Pulls Ahead of the Pack in Ethernet Storage with Expanded Options for FCoE and DCB Customers

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that it has expanded its Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB) product offerings with help from solution partners Brocade, Emulex, and VMware. NetApp customers now have even more options to build complete end-to-end FCoE infrastructures and unify their Ethernet and Fibre Channel architectures.

NetApp, a pioneer and leader in Ethernet storage, continues to advance the technology by expanding its product portfolio with support from its solution partners. As part of this expansion, NetApp will begin reselling a new Converged Network Adapter (CNA) from Emulex, and is among the first storage vendors to support VMware® vSphere™ 4 in an FCoE host environment. NetApp has also augmented its FCoE portfolio from Brocade. In addition to offering Brocade’s CNAs, FCoE blade for the DCX, and the top-of-rack 8000 FCoE switch, NetApp is now introducing a DCB-only version of the Brocade 8000.

“In our recent testing, the NetApp storage system did a wonderful job handling FCoE, iSCSI, and other storage protocols simultaneously in a single solution and is a very compelling proposition for customers looking to consolidate their data centers or move to FCoE,” said Dennis Martin, president of Demartek, a provider of lab validation reports and vendor-neutral product comparison research reports for software and computer infrastructure products. “Being first to market and having a robust partner ecosystem that provides their customers with a host of options to build end-to-end solutions makes NetApp a true leader in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE space.”

“Emulex is proud to partner with a leader in the Ethernet space to help bring the best possible Ethernet-driven network convergence solutions to our joint customers,” said Steve Daheb, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development at Emulex. “Emulex brings a powerful network convergence connectivity architecture to NetApp’s end-to-end FCoE infrastructure with its OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapters (UCNAs), and together we help our customers maximize cost and hardware efficiencies in their data centers without compromising performance.”

With NetApp and its solutions partners, customers can build end-to-end FCoE infrastructures while still supporting existing Fibre Channel investments and take a phased approach to consolidating their data centers around Ethernet. By using Emulex OneConnect UCNAs, customers can run both FCoE and IP traffic through the same port and on the same wire, eliminating the need for and expense of separate SAN and LAN adapters and cables. Emulex OneConnect UCNAs provide maximum performance, regardless of the mix of network traffic, and outperformed other vendors’ CNAs in recent testing by IT Brand Pulse. Now customers can build out their Ethernet infrastructure over time while maintaining maximum performance and protecting previous infrastructure investments.

“NetApp’s philosophy and strength has always been to offer a unified, multiprotocol storage portfolio that gives customers the benefit of both efficiency and performance,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions and Alliances at NetApp. “By working closely with our solutions partners like Brocade, Emulex, and VMware to push the envelope of what’s possible with Ethernet storage, we’re able to offer customers more options than ever before to help them simplify and unify their infrastructure and achieve business breakthroughs.”

The foundation technology of FCoE is 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE). As a pioneer and leader in 10GbE Storage, NetApp has shipped nearly 14,000 10GbE ports since first offering them in 2006 and, as the technology bloomed, has seen an 85% increase over the last seven months. As customers look to consolidate data center resources, they can increase value and efficiency by sharing the bandwidth of a high-performance 10GbE network infrastructure. The increased bandwidth and added enhancements to support FCoE make 10GbE the ideal interconnect for modern data centers.

For more information about NetApp Ethernet storage solutions, visit:
www.netapp.com/us/company/leadership/ethernet-storage/.

To read the recent Demartek evaluation of NetApp unified Ethernet storage, visit:
www.netapp.com/us/library/research-papers/rp-unified-networking-evaluation.html.

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NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover NetApp’s passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. VMware and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company. The use of the term “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between NetApp, Inc. and any other company.

Forward-Looking Statements
In addition to historical information, this document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent NetApp’s beliefs regarding future events, many of which are, by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside NetApp’s control. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future of and trends in the Ethernet industry.

NetApp cautions readers that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include the adverse global economic and market conditions, risks associated with the anticipated growth in network storage and content delivery markets, NetApp’s ability to deliver new product architectures and enterprise service offerings, and other important factors as described in NetApp’s reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NetApp disclaims any obligation to update and revise the forward-looking statements contained in these materials based on new information or otherwise.