Network Appliance, Inc. today announced an agreement with the Symantec Technology Enabled Program (STEP) to speed and enhance qualification of NetApp® SAN storage systems with Veritas Storage Foundation from Symantec. Enterprise customers with a heterogeneous SAN environment will be able to achieve and maintain data center availability while remaining confident that their applications and data are available.

The STEP agreement renews NetApp compatibility with Storage Foundation 5.0 and future versions, encompassing mutual engineering support and interoperability testing between NetApp and Symantec. Storage Foundation enables centralized control of storage resource allocation and high availability in Solaris, Windows, Linux, HP-UX, and AIX operating system environments.

"This is yet another step in our continuing efforts to offer our customers the most comprehensive data center proven solutions," said Patrick Rogers, vice president, Products and Partners at NetApp. "Integrating unique NetApp and Symantec capabilities for heterogeneous SAN environments enables customers to have enhanced data protection and management options, which .reduce their SAN management cost and complexity and improve their overall level of service."

"Symantec has a long working relationship with NetApp to provide solutions that help customers manage and simplify their FC SANs," said Ted Stinson, senior director, Business Operations, Symantec. "Enhancing our direct engineering interoperability efforts and resources with NetApp will enable NetApp FC SAN customers to more cost-effectively and efficiently manage their heterogeneous server and storage infrastructures."

NetApp FC SAN infrastructures allow organizations to easily move and share storage resources across the enterprise, enabling them to achieve massive scalability with minimal complexity and without adding administrative overhead. NetApp FC SAN solutions help customers adapt to changing data center needs, achieve superior data and business application management, and experience the lowest TCO. This is made possible through instantaneous FC SAN provisioning and data recovery; leading 4Gb performance and support; and tight integration with director, switch, and host bus adapter (HBA) products. Plus NetApp enterprise software enables a host of cost-effective storage solutions such as compliance, archival, content management, and data security.

NetApp FC SAN design and implementation services are also available and can assist customers in developing a well-documented design and detailed implementation plan when integrating NetApp FC SAN storage systems into existing IT environments. The service allows customers to achieve a smooth and efficient deployment, increases overall utilization, and, in most cases, provides near-zero downtime during integration - NetApp.