SUNNYVALE, Calif. Dececember 2, 2003 - Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), a leading provider of enterprise network storage solutions, and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, announced today that they have entered a strategic relationship with a common goal to offer solutions that will drive the adoption of a simplified and standards-based storage networking infrastructure. As part of the strategic relationship, Network Appliance has signed a reseller agreement with Cisco in which Network Appliance will qualify and tune Network Appliance^TM unified storage systems for maximum performance and functionality with the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of Multilayer Intelligent directors and fabric storage area networking (SAN) switches and sell them in conjunction with the NetApp® enterprise storage portfolio.

The strategic relationship aims to deliver storage networking solutions through technology collaboration, joint sales and marketing activities, while providing collaborative support to help customers architect, deploy, and benefit from these solutions for a variety of database and layered application needs, storage consolidation, data protection/disaster recovery, and archive/reference data requirements.

In addition, this agreement promises to help enterprises migrate more rapidly from direct-attached to networked storage and more quickly reap the returns from that shift. These benefits include easier data management, more robust data sharing, and powerful information life cycle management within a storage grid.

"As customers continue to demand greater end-to-end value from their storage infrastructures, they will seek out integrated solutions that are fully compatible and drive down the cost and complexity of managing expanding IT environments," said Brad Nisbet, senior research analyst at IDC. "Cooperative agreements, such as the one announced today between Network Appliance and Cisco, offer customers investment protection by giving them the flexibility to grow their storage networks with more scalable solutions."

"Cisco and Network Appliance share a rich and productive history of delivering enterprise storage solutions through the combination of our NAS and IP technologies," said Soni Jiandani, vice president of Marketing for the Storage Technology Group at Cisco. "By extending the solutions offerings with multiprotocol, intelligent SAN technologies, the two companies will accelerate customers' next generation storage deployments, help them maximize existing storage resources, and provide new opportunities for enterprises to gain more value from their data infrastructures."

"Our strategic relationship with Cisco is important for us as we extend our solutions portfolio and initiatives in iSCSI and unified storage," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Partners and Alliances. "Together, we will deliver simple, interoperable solutions that will enable the adoption of these storage systems across commonly managed networked infrastructures, while reducing the total cost of ownership and improving application efficiency and performance."

Solution Availability

Network Appliance has completed interoperability testing for the Cisco MDS 9500 series directors and the Cisco MDS 9216 modular fabric switch and will offer these switches immediately on limited availability. Testing of Cisco MDS 9100 series fabric switches is in process with Network Appliance. Network Appliance expects to make the Cisco MDS 9100 series fabric switches available within 45 days of this announcement.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions for today's data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has delivered technology, product, and partner firsts that continue to drive "The evolution of storage.^TM" Information about Network Appliance^TM solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp is a registered trademark and Network Appliance and The evolution of storage are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.