Birth of an industry and storage efficiency . In 1992 we created the first networked storage appliance and launched an industry while enabling vertical industry applications and the Internet. Our competitors are still working to catch up to the efficiency innovations that we introduced in the world’s first storage operating system.

Affordable data protection . Since 2001 we have been instrumental in the widespread adoption of near-line storage. Before our advances, customers had to choose between costly but highly available online, disk-based data storage and economical but offline, slow-access, tape-based data storage. Our innovations have allowed customers to turn data that previously was locked away and couldn’t be accessed into valuable, accessible business information.

Unified storage operations . In 2002 we set new standards for simplified data management and return on investment with the industry’s first unified SAN (storage area network) and NAS (network-attached storage) platform. Our NetApp® Unified Storage Architecture unifies processes, access methods, and tiers to streamline management and reduce capital expenses and operational overhead.

Compounding storage efficiencies . In 2004 we added new weapons to our storage efficiency arsenal, including thin provisioning and cloning. Individually, these technologies can dramatically reduce storage capacity requirements. Combining these technologies with other NetApp storage efficiencies, such as deduplication, compounds the capacity and cost savings, enabling customers to transform their data centers from cost centers into a competitive advantage.

Maximizing the benefits of virtualized environments . Virtualizing customers’ desktop systems and servers on our storage platform enables scalability to meet business needs, reduces operations cost, and increases performance—without trade-offs.

Enabling flexible, shared storage infrastructures . Today, our unified architecture and data management technologies are the foundation for advanced shared IT services and cloud infrastructures. Partnering with Cisco and VMware, we are changing the economics of data centers by providing end-to-end security in multi-tenant environments. Our customers can embrace the future with confidence when they deploy IT as a service with NetApp at the core.

Innovation Highlights Year Innovation 2012 First to offer clustering for nondisruptive operations, rapid application commissioning, and resource provisioning across low-, mid-, and high-end unified SAN and NAS systems 2012 First to extend data center agility by enabling scale-out across low-, mid-, and high-end unified SAN and NAS systems 2011 First to support an industry-standard framework for shared high-performance parallel I/O to speed data processing for intensive scientific, engineering, and business applications running on large compute clusters 2011 Boosts storage efficiency by integrating inline data compression within a flexible volume on primary, secondary, and archive storage 2010 First to enable a converged 10Gb Ethernet network that supports workloads and storage protocols on a single wire 2010 Powers the delivery of IT as a service with the first isolated, end-to-end, multi-tenant IT infrastructure with the NetApp, Cisco®, and VMware secure multi-tenant solution 2010 First to provide nondisruptive migration of an entire tenant from one storage system to another for lifecycle management and load-balancing across a shared storage infrastructure using NetApp Data Motion technology 2009 First file-level FlexClone volumes can lower cost of storage for VMware® and VDI by allowing businesses to instantly make as many copies of virtual machines and virtual desktops as needed with zero performance impact and minimal capacity 2009 First storage controller with FCoE network connectivity enables affordability of IP network for Fibre Channel, supports multiple network stack integration in a single storage system 2009 First flash-based cache in an enterprise controller, Flash Cache accelerates performance, makes low-cost SATA drives usable for a broader range of workloads 2008 Reduces read latency for a wide variety of applications and workloads and lowers associated deployment costs with Performance Acceleration Module 2007 First unified deduplication for primary and secondary storage reduces associated data center capital and operating expenses 2006 Enables resource management and quality-of-service functionality in a shared storage infrastructure by creating separate performance zones using the FlexShare® tool 2005 First to provide storage resiliency across geographies for continuous data availability at a lower cost than that of existing solutions using MetroCluster™ software 2004 Overcomes capacity management limitations of physical storage by abstracting data management from physical disks with Data ONTAP 7G 2004 First virtual writable copies—FlexClone® thin clones—mean that businesses can make as many copies of their data as they need nearly instantly, with minimal performance impact and capacity 2004 First to eliminate overprovisioning of storage and recapture underutilized storage with dynamic, flexible storage volumes that grow and shrink on the fly: FlexVol® thin provisioning 2003 First high-performance RAID 6 solution makes lower-cost SATA disks appropriate for enterprise storage, increases resiliency for all drive types, offers better protection against disk drive errors than RAID 10 (RAID-DP®) 2003 Virtualizes other vendors’ storage arrays to enable Data ONTAP efficiencies and data protection, starting with HDS arrays with gFiler® units (now V-Series) 2003 First iSCSI storage system offers lower-cost alternative to Fibre Channel for block-level storage and simplifies data management (iSCSI system) 2002 Improves Oracle Database performance with Direct Access File System (DAFS) 2002 First deduplication for disk-to-disk backup transfers only new and changed blocks to minimize network traffic and helps reduce disk capacity requirements by 90% or more (SnapVault®) 2002 First file-system–based compliance storage simplifies and helps reduce cost of compliant storage with write once, read many capability across all NetApp systems (SnapLock® unified compliance) 2002 Reduces overall storage cost and complexity with the first unified SAN and NAS appliance (Data ONTAP 6.3) 2002 Enables disk-to-disk backup and archiving, and rapid, reliable data recovery, bringing historical data closer to users for business intelligence (NearStore® storage appliance) 2001 Enables secure resource sharing by supporting multiple logical systems on one physical system and creates the foundation for today’s secure multi-tenancy (MultiStore®) 2000 Puts Microsoft® Exchange managers in control of their storage by using the application they already know, simplifying Microsoft Exchange data management (SnapManager® for Microsoft Exchange) 1999 Integrates caching and filtering appliances to improve Web service levels and increases user productivity and satisfaction (NetCache® appliances) 1999 Revolutionizes data recovery by slashing recovery time from days or hours to seconds for single files or multiterabyte volumes with NetApp SnapRestore® technology 1998 Delivers the world’s fastest file servers, accelerating response times for users (F700 series) 1998 Breaks the 1TB storage threshold to maximize storage density and minimize storage footprint (F760) 1997 First active-active controller in a NAS appliance offers HA resilience 1997 First NAS appliance to integrate storage with Oracle® applications, simplifying Oracle data management 1996 First network-based data-backup protocol, NDMP, helps businesses meet backup windows without affecting network or system performance 1997 First NAS appliance to integrate storage with Oracle® applications, simplifying Oracle data management 1996 First network-based data-backup protocol, NDMP, helps businesses meet backup windows without affecting network or system performance 1996 Lays the foundation for a unified architecture with multiprotocol network-attached storage (Data ONTAP® 4.0) 1995 World’s fastest NFS motherboard offers new levels of performance for demanding applications (NFS motherboard) 1993 First and only space-saving, no-performance-impact data protection technology using Snapshot® copies (Snapshot) 1993 First network-attached storage appliance provides shared file storage and simplifies data management (FAServer® 400) 1992 NetApp founder Dave Hitz writes the first storage operating system with Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL®), improving storage performance and efficiency

The following reflects a small select list of U.S. patents representative of NetApp innovation:

U.S. Patent No. 5,819,292 (WAFL®)
U.S. Patent No. 6,457,130 (Multi-protocol file server)
U.S. Patent No. 6,604,118 (Snapshot™ technology)
U.S. Patent No. 6,317,884 (HA Resilient Storage Systems)
U.S. Patent No. 6,961,749 (HA Resilient Storage Systems)
U.S. Patent No. 6,993,701 (RAID-DP™ configuration)

© 2012 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved. No portions of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent of NetApp, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, Data ONTAP, FAServer, FlexClone, FlexShare, FlexVol, gFiler, MetroCluster, MultiStore, NearStore, NetCache, RAID-DP, SnapLock, SnapManager, SnapRestore, Snapshot, SnapVault, and WAFL are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.