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HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS AND NETWORK APPLIANCE COLLABORATE

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation and Network Appliance Inc announced recently that the companies have signed an agreement to market and sell enterprise NAS solutions. Under terms of the agreement, Hitachi Data Systems will offer NetApp enterprise NAS gateway solutions for Hitachi Freedom Storage environments managed by HiCommand Management Framework tools. Together, Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems are focused on making it easier for enterprise customers to deploy a storage pool that can be shared across SAN and NAS applications, providing better storage asset management and investment protection. The agreement is a result of both companies' commitment to an open and collaborative business model, emphasizing delivery of high-performance, reliable, interoperable storage solutions based on industry standards. The enterprise NAS gateway is expected to ship in the first calendar quarter of 2003, and additional details will be available from both companies in that timeframe.

As Dave Roberson, Hitachi Data Systems president and COO noted, "A key principle of our TrueNorth strategy is the simplification of storage management. Working closely with Network Appliance to develop an enterprise NAS gateway offering, we can empower customers to unify their storage pools and leverage their enterprise-class SAN infrastructures to deliver all application and data types. This will reduce the complexity of customers' IT infrastructures and lower their management costs."

"Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems are clearly best-in-class vendors in storage, and this relationship continues our evolution as a full-line enterprise storage solutions provider," said Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of Network Appliance. "But the real winners are our customers, who are looking to leverage their investments, reduce the complexity of their IT infrastructures, increase data availability, and simplify storage management. Working closely with Hitachi Data Systems to deliver an enterprise NAS gateway solution based on open standards allows us to offer a more robust array of full-line storage solutions for all types of business data."

Today's enterprise demands fast, reliable access to data to power a wide range of business applications, making storage the critical component for that data need. The Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems agreement is designed to solve customers' diverse needs for storage solutions that are easy to manage, flexible, and tightly integrated for maximum simplicity, performance, and reliability with minimum IT overhead and a low total cost of ownership (TCO). By working together, Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems offer customers investment protection, allowing storage assets to be shared across SAN and NAS data types based on customer preference or application requirements.

The NAS gateway will be available for Hitachi Freedom Storage high-end and modular products in a phased approach starting in the first calendar quarter of 2003.

Conference Call

Dan Warmenhoven and Dave Roberson hosted a conference call that was broadcast live via the Internet from Network Appliance's Web site at www.netapp.com and the HDS site at www.hds.com on Wednesday, December 4. A replay is available by dialing 800-642-1687 in the United States, and 706-645-9291 outside the United States, replay code 6989544.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances.

With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.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 provided technology, product, and partner solutions that continue to drive the evolution of storage.

With 2,400 employees, Network Appliance offers storage solutions to customers around the world, including the ten largest Fortune 250 enterprises in each of the company's primary verticals (energy, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, telecommunications, major manufacturing, and technology manufacturing) as well as governments. Information about Network Appliance solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

Contact: Rod Mathews, Network Appliance Inc, 408-822-6108, rod.mathews@netapp.com.