Sunnyvale, Calif. - January 3, 2008
-- NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) today announced a definitive merger
agreement to acquire Onaro, a privately owned company headquartered
in Boston, Mass. Onaro's software, deployed in 32% of Fortune 50
companies, allows enterprises to manage storage with the highest
possible data availability at a fraction of normal operational
costs. The combination of NetApp and Onaro will help enterprise
organizations increase data center and storage network efficiencies
by proactively managing and optimizing storage service levels for
availability and performance in dynamic data center environments.
The predictive nature of Onaro products also makes them ideally
suited for modeling and forecasting data center and service-level
changes-capabilities that customers sorely need as they upgrade,
rethink, and deploy their next-generation data centers.
For NetApp, this deal signals a continued strengthening of the
company's storage and data management software portfolio. NetApp
has rapidly expanded its storage management offerings over the last
few years and the addition of Onaro to the mix should be compelling
to customers who want one expert to help them with their storage
architecture challenges.
For existing NetApp customers, the acquisition of Onaro enables
powerful new storage service management and change management
capabilities. For Onaro customers, the acquisition brings to Onaro
products a significant R&D engine and financial strength to
significantly advance product development over the coming years.
For new customers, the NetApp and Onaro solution offers the
opportunity to effectively deploy and manage service-level
large-scale storage networks using cost-effective and highly
scalable modular systems. They no longer will need to rely on
monolithic legacy systems that are expensive and cumbersome in
today's era of rapid data center evolution.
"I am very excited about the breakthroughs we can achieve for our
customers with the addition of Onaro to our manageability
portfolio," said Tom Georgens, executive vice president, Product
Operations at NetApp. "This deal is not just a first for the
industry, but also a new opportunity for customers to rethink their
large-scale storage infrastructures-and gain extra confidence in
the strength of modular systems to manage the biggest data
challenges out there."
Onaro extends NetApp vision and strategy for integrated data
management in the data center, whether using NetApp® or other
than NetApp storage systems, and complements traditional SRM
products. As storage networks continue to grow, IT managers face an
increasingly complex challenge to document change, assess
compliance to best practices, and diagnose root cause in real time.
Onaro's products rise to meet that challenge. An
application-centric view of performance, availability, and change
management results in better levels of service for each application
on a storage network, making consolidation and migration projects
easier to plan for and manage.
"Eighty percent of all IT operational issues such as application
outages, performance problems, and downtime result from unwitting
change. Customers tell us they are being asked to commit to almost
impossible levels of service to avoid these problems, which drain
precious resources," continued Georgens. "They are looking to us
for a solution to obtain a better view and gain more control over
their storage systems, not just as physical devices but as a set of
services. With the addition of Onaro, our ability to provide the
underlying modular storage architecture as well as policy-based
storage management software will help enterprises commit to
escalating service levels required by their business in the near
term and to proactively continue to navigate changes in their data
centers."
"We are excited and look forward to joining the outstanding team at
NetApp," said Doug McNary, president and CEO at Onaro, Inc. "NetApp
global channels and its powerful brand will accelerate Onaro's
ability to address the growing worldwide demand for our products.
Our technologies and strategies are very complementary and will
enable the combined companies to offer customers comprehensive
storage management solutions for the data center."
The NetApp and Onaro combination also strengthens the NetApp SAN
(storage area network) portfolio with robust SAN service-level
management. It likewise complements the company's solutions for
virtualization and VMware, both of which are driving massive data
center changes that require the modeling and predictive
capabilities inherent in Onaro products. Onaro will complement
other NetApp offerings for heterogeneous data management, which
include:
- NearStore® VTL systems for heterogeneous data center
backup
- V-Series systems for multi-vendor virtualization
- VFM® (Virtual File Manager™) software for managing
distributed data
- ReplicatorX™ software for data replication and
recovery
- NetApp Decru DataFort® appliances for enterprise-class
storage encryption
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of
calendar year 2008, subject to customary closing conditions.
About Onaro, Inc.
Onaro is the leader in storage service management (SSM), enabling
enterprises to increase service quality, return on storage, and
compliance by managing storage as a service. Unlike traditional SRM
applications which are device centric, Onaro provides a clear
service view into a SAN's access paths, redundancy, replication,
and performance. SANscreen is being used by the world's largest
companies in banking, retail, entertainment, data communications,
and wireless telecom. A partial customer list includes AOL,
CareGroup Healthcare System, JetBlue Airways, State Street Global
Advisors, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. For more information, please
visit
www.onaro.com.
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.
"Safe Harbor" Statement Under U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements include the anticipated benefits to be obtained
from the Company's acquisition of Onaro, including Onaro's product
capabilities and compatibility and the expected timing of the
completion of the acquisition. These forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary.
Factors that could impact our ability to achieve our goals include
our ability to successfully integrate Onaro operations and products
with the future success of both companies' product lines; general
economic and industry conditions, including expenditure trends for
storage-related products; our ability to deliver new product
architectures and products that meet market acceptance; our ability
to design products that compete effectively from a price and
performance perspective; and other important factors as described
in NetApp reports and documents filed from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently
submitted 10-K and 10-Q.
Press Contact:
Jodi Baumann
NetApp
(408) 822-3974
jodi.baumann@netapp.com
John Welton
Voce Communications for NetApp
Ph: (408) 822-3287
jwelton@vocecomm.com
xdl-uspr@netapp.com
Investor Contact:
Tara Dhillon
NetApp
Ph: (408) 822-6909
tara@netapp.com