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BROCADE AND NETWORK APPLIANCE EXPAND PARTNERSHIP

Brocade Communications Systems Inc, a leading provider of infrastructure solutions for storage area networks (SANs), and Network Appliance Inc, a leading provider of enterprise network storage solutions, have announced that they have signed an OEM partnership agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Network Appliance will integrate the FAS900 series, Network Appliance's new flagship enterprise storage platform, with the 2 gigabit per second Brocade SilkWorm 3800 Enterprise Fabric Switch and SilkWorm 3200 Entry Fabric Switch to provide Network Appliance customers with the benefits of SAN and NAS in the same enclosure.

The Network Appliance FAS960, FAS940, F880, and F825 are unified storage solutions capable of handling networked storage in SAN and/or NAS mode with a single hardware platform and architecture. Brocade SAN infrastructure, the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage, enables Network Appliance storage systems to connect servers with storage devices through a SAN, allowing enterprises to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in a manageable, scalable, highly available, and secure environment.

"We are pleased to be working closely with Network Appliance to provide the intelligent SAN foundation for its flagship enterprise storage platform. As the leading provider of SAN infrastructure, we look forward to continuing our work with Network Appliance to develop solutions and help customers simplify the implementation of storage area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade chief marketing officer.

"Brocade is a vital and important partner for us as we extend our SAN solutions portfolio," said Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance. "Together, we will deliver total storage solutions that are highly scalable, interoperable, cost-effective, and above all simple, delivering maximum value to customers with minimum TCO."

About Brocade Communications Systems Inc

Brocade offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify the implementation of storage area networks, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the Brocade Website at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance is a world leader in open network storage solutions for today's data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has pioneered technology, product, and partner firsts that continue to drive the evolution of storage. Information about Network Appliance solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

Contact: Eric Brown, Network Appliance Inc, 408-822-3463, ebrown@netapp.com.