NetApp StoreVault And Hammer To Distribute First All-In-One Network Storage Solution To Growing SMB Market In The U.K.

Published 20th November 2006

NetApp StoreVault and Hammer to distribute first all-in-one network storage solution to growing SMB market in the U.K.

· StoreVault embarks on expansion in growing SMB markets worldwide with new StoreVault S500 features for greater simplicity, scalability and data management

United Kingdom — November 20, 2006 — StoreVault, a NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) division, today announced a distributor relationship with Hammer to deliver StoreVault storage solutions to the fast-growing small and medium business (SMB) market in the United Kingdom (U.K.). First introduced in the United States in June 2006, StoreVault created a scalable global business system to address SMB customers’ needs around the world. The StoreVault S500 is expected to be available in the U.K. in January 2007, marking the first expansion of StoreVault to international SMB markets.

Established in 1991 and winner of “Storage Distributor of the Year 2006” by Storage Awards, Hammer is one of the longest-standing storage distributors in Europe dedicated to innovation and a thorough understanding of emerging technologies and market forces for SMBs. The addition of Hammer as a StoreVault distributor is a significant milestone for the StoreVault global growth strategy and fulfilling market anticipation in the U.K. Partnering with Hammer, StoreVault will offer the StoreVault S500 through qualified SMB resellers and system integrators to meet the unique needs of SMB customers and the channel partners who serve them in the U.K.

Jason Beeson, storage solutions sales director, Hammer, said: “We are pleased to enhance our SMB product portfolio in the U.K. with the addition of StoreVault. The SMB market continues to experience solid growth and, as a market we know very well, we expect StoreVault to be well received. NetApp is a proven storage leader around the world with a reputation of great customer satisfaction, which is extremely important for our resellers. Through our in-house team and the StoreVault channel program, our customers will have access to a dedicated sales team and technical specialists who can share best practices for meeting SMB customers’ storage needs.”

Similar to its U.S. SMB channel strategy, NetApp has created a separate and unique SMB channel program, the StoreVault Partner Program, tailored to meet the needs of qualified SMB value-added resellers (VARs) in the U.K. In addition, unlike current SMB vendors, StoreVault will sell the StoreVault S500 only through the channel, providing a set of focused program benefits and tools specifically designed to help support SMB customers.

Sajai Krishnan, general manager, StoreVault, said: “We have learned that international SMBs are dealing with the same data growth and storage management issues as they are in the U.S. As StoreVault embarks on its focused expansion around the world, finding the right partners and putting the right channel infrastructure in place will enable our StoreVault distributors and VARs to efficiently address customers’ needs. We have taken a methodical and deliberate approach to ensure that we understand local market and channel needs in the U.K. With its storage expertise and solutions focus, Hammer will play an essential role in our mutual success in the U.K.”

Tailored Solution to Meet the Unique SMB Needs in the U.K.
The StoreVault S500 is the industry’s first scalable all-in-one network storage appliance for the SMB market that supports NAS, iSCSI SAN and Fibre Channel (FC) SAN, providing SMB customers unparalleled flexibility compared to direct-attached storage. Aimed at the IT generalist within SMBs, which typically need a half terabyte to three terabytes of data storage, the StoreVault S500 delivers SMBs the scalability needed as their business grows, simplicity of storage management and backup processes and security for reliable data protection, all at a price point that fits SMB budgets.

The StoreVault S500 is distinguished from competitive offerings by its simplified management, scalability and security for all of the business information of an SMB. StoreVault delivers the best of enterprise-proven storage technology from NetApp to the SMB market through an easy-to-use and flexible network storage solution for SMBs. Global SMB customers will have access to the following best-in-class storage technologies from StoreVault:

Simplified Management
. 14-year data-centre-proven operating system Data ONTAP®
. StoreVault Manager, a simple, intuitive Windows®-based application for easy storage management
. NAS, iSCSI SAN, and FC SAN capabilities available in one StoreVault system

Scalability
. Easy-to-grow system is scalable to 6TB without disruption to operations
. Compatible with either 250GB or 500GB SATA drives
. Drives can be added or removed nondisruptively, to allocate and reallocate storage on the fly

Security with StoreVault Advanced Protection Architecture
. Advanced system protection technologies deliver a highly reliable storage platform, including RAID-DP™, to guard against dual drive failure, predictive failure analysis enabling pre-emptive rebuild of failed drives using global hot spares, nondisruptive firmware updates, and single-drive power cycling for easy drive management
. Advanced data protection technologies enable rapid data recovery with patented NetApp Snapshot™ technology for efficient, frequent backup, enabling 255 Snapshot images compared to only 8 to 64 snapshots from competitive solutions, as well as SnapRestore® for near-instantaneous restore

Coinciding with today’s announcement, StoreVault also announced the following new features to its award-winning StoreVault S500 for improved simplicity, scalability and data management and to further extend enterprise-class functionality to the SMB masses:

. StoreVault Replication. Based on NetApp enterprise technology, StoreVault Replication is the first SMB storage software that can copy both file and block data between locations. StoreVault Replication is easily enabled with a software license key and designed to simply manage replication between multiple StoreVault S500s using the new StoreVault Manager 2.0 interface. Instead of third-party software loaded on various servers, StoreVault Replication provides comprehensive replication at an affordable price that is integrated in the StoreVault S500 to address all types of data on the system.

. Fibre Channel (FC) Support. StoreVault is teaming with QLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QLGC) to provide the StoreVault FC Starter Kit, which includes a factory-installed host bus adapter (HBA), a 10-port 4Gbit Fibre Channel switch and QLogic SANsurfer Express software. Additional FC HBAs are available for a simple, customised solution. The FC Starter Kit is ideal for first-time FC installations.

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