Piscataway, NJ, February 21, 2008 -Blade.org, the industry consortium driving innovation in blade-based solutions, announced that NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) has been named a governing member and that NetApp's Adam Mendoza will join the organization's board of directors.

Mendoza is NetApp's senior manager for the Virtualization and Grid Infrastructures business unit.One of his principal responsibilities is the development of a virtualization solution strategy and portfolio that utilize blade server architectures and provide reference architectures that customers can leverage and adopt. He is also responsible for the development of strategic alliances with leading technology companies that jointly focus on the business, technology, and operational considerations for next-generation data center environments.

NetApp recently teamed with other Blade.org members Blade Network Technologies and Chelsio Communications on a collaborative study through Blade.org demonstrating that blade servers equipped with embedded 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking can support large-scale business applications at near wire speeds in consolidated blade server architectures by using NetApp® Ethernet and IP networked storage.

"Blade.org was founded upon a spirit of collaboration and exemplifies the dedication that is necessary in order to create solutions that span all elements of blade server architectures, and the organization is proving to be a tremendous vehicle for NetApp and other Blade.org members in accelerating the adoption of blade server architectures, "said Mendoza. "Customers who are considering blade server architectures want to adopt this technology to help them reduce their power, space, and cooling requirements. They also have a critical need to adopt associated operational disciplines for data protection, data movement, and migration based upon a set of standard best practices and tools.

Blade.org's board of directors now includes:

• Douglas Balog, IBM
• Daniel Cohen, Brocade
• Vikram Karvat, NetXen
• Adam Mendoza, NetApp
• Shailesh Naik, Blade Network Technologies
• Ken Pierrehumbert, APCC
• Jason Waxman, Intel

"We are pleased to welcome NetApp as a governing board member," said Doug Balog, chairman of Blade.org and vice president of development for blades and modular systems at IBM. "NetApp is exemplary of the Blade.org vendor members that have joined together to support the variety of customer environments made possible with blade servers. To help Blade.org further accelerate the adoption of blade servers, NetApp brings best practices and tools for data protection, data movement and migration, and more importantly, vast experience with large-scale, next generation blade-server-based data centers."

About NetApp
NetApp is a leading provider of innovative data management solutions that simplify the complexity of storing, managing, protecting, and retaining enterprise data. Market leaders around the world choose NetApp to help them reduce cost, minimize risk, and adapt to change. For solutions that deliver unmatched simplicity and value, visit us on the Web at www.netapp.com.

About Blade.org
Blade.org is a collaborative vendor and end-user community focused on accelerating the development and adoption of blade server solutions. The organization provides leadership to the blade market and fosters a thriving industry ecosystem focused on delivering valuable solutions to blade computing customers. For more information, visit http://www.blade.org.

Contact:
Zee Zaballos
ZNA Communications
+1.831.425.1581, ext. 201
pr@blade.org