NetApp Unveils Product Line

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- IDC forecasts that the Midsize Enterprise (MSE) external disk storage systems market will grow to $6.0B in 2011, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%, which is almost twice as fast as the overall market(1). While demands on the MSE to increase storage capacity are tremendous, the typical Midsize Enterprise faces a pricey dilemma of how to manage and protect all that data without a corresponding increase in headcount.

To help customers solve this dilemma -- and with an expanded focus on the MSE market -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - News) today unveiled the NetApp FAS2000 product line -- the FAS2020 and FAS2050 -- and new deployment and auditing services designed to help simplify data management and maximize existing IT investments. Today NetApp brings the market a paradigm-shifting, enterprise-class storage technology that easily scales to help MSE customers maximize their data infrastructures while minimizing complexity, overhead, and technical staffing costs.

The MSE, as NetApp defines it, manages dozens of servers, has $50 million to $500 million in annual revenue, and supports the storage needs of anywhere between 100 and 1,000 employees. The size and scope of these businesses pose several challenges. The first is that they rely on their IT departments -- normally staffed by an IT "generalist" who needs to be a jack-of-all-trades -- to keep the business running, and, by default, keep employees productive. These generalists normally can't invest time to tighten integration between major applications and the storage platform. The other challenge is the necessity to reduce overall costs by fully optimizing IT assets. And, finally, these companies are changing and growing constantly. They require an infrastructure that easily expands and scales. Agility is not a luxury, but a means to survival. NetApp MSE solutions, and the FAS2020 and FAS2050, which support all major protocols, empower the MSE to address these challenges.

Network Appliance Inc.