NetApp to support Intel Ethernet X520 family

NetApp announced it will support the Intel Ethernet X520 family of
SFP+10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) server adapters. This extends NetApp's ecosystem
of tested Ethernet solutions and offers customers more ways to deploy an
end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) infrastructure. By offering
customers tested options to make the transition from a Fibre Channel
infrastructure to a high performance FCoE infrastructure, NetApp helps them
increase the flexibility of their IT to manage more storage and protocols at
lower costs.

10GbE unified networking provides a simple, flexible, and well-understood
fabric for today's dynamic data centers and lays the groundwork for new
computing models, including cloud computing. With long histories of leadership
in Ethernet storage and networking, NetApp and Intel are helping drive the
transition to a unified data center on 10GbE. Both companies were early
supporters of FCoE. NetApp is the first storage vendor to support native FCoE
storage, and Intel is the first Ethernet adapter vendor to support Open-FCoE (www.open-fcoe.org),
which enables FCoE in standard 10GbE adapters.

"NetApp's core belief is that unified storage helps our customers achieve
business breakthroughs by giving them a universal storage solution to support
all aspects of their business," said Patrick Rogers, VP-Solutions and Alliances,
NetApp. "By enhancing our product portfolio with supported 10GbE and Open FCoE
products from Intel, we are giving customers the flexibility they need to set up
Unified Ethernet solutions in their existing environments and realize
substantial benefits in cost reduction, ease of use, and efficiency," commented
Rogers.

"It is exciting to see NetApp supporting Intel technology to advance 10GbE
and Open FCoE and help customers consolidate their data centers," said Tom
Swinford, VP and GM-LAN Access Division, Intel Corporation. "The Intel Ethernet
X520 family of 10GbE server adapters makes it easier for customers to move to a
single platform, reduce the cost of building out, and maintain their storage
network," added Swinford.

NetApp unified storage supports customers' existing Fibre Channel investments
as well as FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS, allowing them to take a phased approach to
consolidate their data centers around Ethernet. This single platform approach
allows customers to transition their existing Fibre Channel infrastructure with
new, cost-effective FCoE technology, helping them consolidate and simplify their
storage infrastructure. This can reduce the amount of storage hardware customers
need in their data center, which in turn can lead to significant reductions in
power use and administrative overhead. By working with Intel, NetApp hopes to
make it even easier for customers to consolidate around 10GbE and FCoE by
working with vendor technology they already know and trust.

Customers such as Databasement, a leading cloud-based storage provider, are
achieving operational and capital savings as well as enhanced performance with
NetApp unified storage and FCoE. NetApp helped Databasement easily manage any
protocol and offer its customers 10GbE FCoE as a high-performance yet low-cost
option without deploying additional hardware or affecting service levels. "Since
Databasement's founding, ie in 2001, NetApp has been one of the most important
technologies in our portfolio, providing the flexibility and efficiency we need
to be able to keep costs down and performance up and provide our customers with
a full range of storage options," said Rob Christ, Founder and Director,
Databasement.