Sunnyvale, CA - August 18, 2005 - According to Gartner's first report for the Worldwide WAN Optimization Controller (WOC) Equipment segment of the Application Acceleration Equipment market, Network Appliance (NASDAQ: NTAP) leads the market, capturing 24.0% of the 2004 revenue market share.¹ The WOC Equipment segment is a $359 million piece of the overall $915 million Application Acceleration Equipment market.¹

In the report, Gartner explains that as more organizations centralize their servers and deploy Web-enabled intranet applications, WAN Optimization Controllers solve performance problems caused by bandwidth constraints and latency or protocol limitations.

WOCs are specifically designed for network deployment, used mainly in data centers and remote locations to improve application performance across WANs. The NetApp® NetCache® systems portfolio was most recently enhanced in June with the introduction of the C2300 and C3300 models. In a distributed environment, NetCache appliances improve access to applications and content within corporate WANs by storing content closer to end users, thus eliminating network and server bottlenecks.

"The diverse mix of NetCache customers, including large enterprises and service providers, led to the success of NetApp within this market segment," explained Edward Sharp, general manager of the Content Delivery business unit at Network Appliance. "The value of the NetCache product line is displayed by its delivery of information for enterprises-providing security, accelerated information access, cost savings, and reliability. In the past year, we have further strengthened NetApp solutions by providing a broader range of features, increased storage capacity, and value-added services of NetCache appliances. As we look to extend our position as the market leader through 2005, we will continue to address customer challenges with reliable, affordable solutions for simplifying Internet security and content delivery."

Full details of the Worldwide Application Acceleration Equipment Market Share Report are available from Gartner.

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 simplify data management. Information about Network Appliance™ solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

¹ Gartner Dataquest, "Market Share: Application Acceleration Equipment, Worldwide, 2004" Joe Skorupa, August, 2005.

Press Contact:
Liz Reid
Voce Communications for Network Appliance, Inc.
(650) 228-5179
ereid@vocecomm.com