Network Appliance is the first company to support Oracle hardware assisted resilient data initiative in modular storage arrays

Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) today introduced the next addition to its data management software portfolio with SnapValidator. SnapValidator is the industry's first storage software solution for Oracle Database environments that is capable of end-to-end validation of Oracle Database blocks for data integrity supporting SAN, NAS and IP SAN before it gets written to NetApp unified storage environments. The Oracle Hardware Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) Initiative is a comprehensive program designed to prevent data corruptions before they happen. By implementing Oracle's data validation algorithms inside storage devices, SnapValidator provides Oracle on NetApp database customers with an enhanced "integrity-check" by proactively checking and intercepting potential data corruption or loss.

Customers that are highly dependent on the accuracy of highly sensitive data
- particularly within financial services organisations including major banks and brokerages - can now leverage SnapValidator software to add an additional layer of protection providing them a peace-of-mind that their accounts payable, accounts receivable and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) are accurate. SnapValidator can be applied across the full-line of NetApp storage systems, across any protocol, supporting the Oracle Database, adding to a robust, highly reliable and available data environment.

Juan Loaiza, vice president of systems technologies at Oracle said: "Ensuring the integrity and availability of business data is vital to all companies with mission critical databases. Oracle is pleased to partner with NetApp to bring the benefits of full end-to-end data validation to our customers."

SnapValidator eliminates the most frequent customer challenges associated with ensuring the accuracy of their data. These include:

*Unplanned application errors that could overwrite data
blocks onto disk;
*Multiple layers of software and hardware creating added complexity
and increasing the probability of corruption before data is written to
NetApp unified storage systems;
*Accidental human errors resulting in potentially copying data onto
inappropriate storage resources;
*Intricate data backup and restore processes making data susceptible
to corruption or loss.

Patrick Rogers, vice president of marketing at Network Appliance said: "SnapValidator was created as part of the recently enhanced NetApp Data ONTAP 7G operating system. Customers who are responsible for ensuring that their Oracle corporate data is unaltered and 100-percent accurate now have added assurance that their data has been written to disk unchanged. NetApp is providing reliable data validity, increased reliability and peace-of-mind so that these customers can remain focused on the use of the data itself rather than on accurate movement of the data to their NetApp SAN, NAS, or IP SAN."

The SnapValidator software solution has built-in database I/O awareness, which is the result of recent advancements in the recently released Data ONTAP 7G operating system and through support of the Oracle Hardware-Assisted Resilient Data (HARD) initiative. SnapValidator is available as a separate license for Data ONTAP 7G.