NetScout Announces nGenius Partnering Strategy

15 Jul 2002

Expanding the Scope and Reach of the nGenius Performance Management System

WESTFORD, Mass., July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NetScout Systems (Nasdaq: NTCT) today announced its nGenius Alliance Program, a key component of its initiative to consolidate the fragmented network performance management tool environment around its nGenius(TM) Performance Management System. The program will expand the scope and reach of nGenius by collecting performance data from hardware partners' devices, which complement the data collected from NetScout Probes, and by offering nGenius performance information to software partners' applications, which complement and enhance the company's flagship product, nGenius Performance Manager(TM). NetScout customers can now develop a unified performance management strategy to cut their management data and tool clutter while extending the value of their existing infrastructure investment.

NetScout unveiled the first component of the program called Technology Integration Partners (TIP), which promotes collaboration with vendors of intelligent network infrastructure devices in order to integrate their performance information into the nGenius Performance Management System. At the core of the relationship is NetScout's Common Data Model(TM) (CDM) technology, which maps data from many different sources into a consistent structure for use by the nGenius System. A separate announcement regarding CDM was also made today.

Among the leading infrastructure companies who are becoming Technology Integration Partners are F5 Networks, Foundry Networks and Extreme Networks. All of these partners' devices provide detailed information about the traffic flowing through them and provide valuable insight into the network's performance, complementing the value received from NetScout Probes on the network. Full support from the feature-rich nGenius Performance Management System will also extend the value of these intelligent infrastructure devices by integrating their performance data within the context of the entire network and the business services being delivered.

"Through the integration of NetScout's CDM technology and F5's industry leading internet traffic management solutions, customers will have an enterprise view of critical internet traffic performance information," said Jim Ritchings, vice president of Business Development of F5 Networks. "This combined solution will allow NetScout's nGenius Performance Management System to leverage the rich metrics captured by F5's products and will deliver immediate value to our customers."

"NetScout's support for RFC 3176 (sFlow) in its nGenius Performance Management System is a perfect complement to Foundry's wire-speed, always-on, ASIC-based RFC 3176 implementation across our entire high-performance switching and routing product portfolio," said Ken Cheng, vice president of Marketing for Foundry Networks. "The integrated solution from NetScout and Foundry offers customers a unique value proposition by providing cost- effective methods for high-speed network traffic monitoring, capacity planning, performance tuning, fraud management and fault resolution, all without sacrificing network performance. With this comprehensive solution, customers can increase overall network efficiency and performance to meet business needs."

NetScout offers TIP partners tools and assistance in mapping their unique performance data to NetScout's CDM structure, collaboration in mutual certification testing, collaboration in customer support for the combined environment, and joint marketing within the framework of the nGenius Alliance Program. "NetScout will aggressively expand the TIP program to cover all key infrastructure devices in our customers' networks, providing them, for the first time, broad device and deep traffic flow management in a single product," said Bruce Sweet, vice president of Business Development at NetScout. "We are off to a great start with Extreme, Foundry, and F5, each of whom provides unique added value in our performance management solution to our mutual customers."

"Our nGenius Alliance Program is a high priority initiative for NetScout. We plan to use our strong position in the network management market and our ground-breaking Common Data Model technology to cement relationships with these and other network market leaders," said David Sommers, senior vice president of General Operations of NetScout Systems. "We are committed to making the nGenius Performance Management System, with CDM, the core network performance management solution for our partners and customers -- and the preeminent solution in the marketplace."

About NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated network performance management solutions for leading companies and service providers worldwide. NetScout serves the Global 5000 and counts among its customers Arvin Meritor, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Cable and Wireless, Cisco Systems, China Telecom, Fidelity Investments, Getronics, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Nextel Communications, Samsung SDS, Siemens Health Services Corporation, StarBand Communications, Travelocity.com, Visa International, and Wachovia Bank. NetScout's solutions are offered through its nGenius(TM) Performance Management System, an integrated suite of advanced monitoring and reporting applications that draw on the rich performance data generated by NetScout's real-time, application-aware probes, advanced intelligent software agents and network devices. The nGenius System helps organizations increase their return on infrastructure investments by optimizing the performance of their network, applications and content. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has approximately 360 employees, with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Further information on the company is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout is a registered trademark, and the NetScout logo, nGenius, nGenius Performance Manager, nGenius Capacity Planner, nGenius Application Service Level Manager, nGenius Real-Time Monitor and nGenius Probe are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc.

    For Further Information:
     Peggy Flynn                   Dawn Sullivan or John Moran
     NetScout Systems              Schwartz Communications, Inc.
     (978) 614-4162                (781) 684-0770
     flynnp@netscout.com           netscout@schwartz-pr.com

     

SOURCE NetScout Systems
Web site: http: //www.netscout.com
CONTACT: Peggy Flynn of NetScout Systems, +1-978-614-4162, flynnp@netscout.com; or Dawn Sullivan or John Moran, both of Schwartz Communications, Inc., +1-781-684-0770, netscout@schwartz-pr.com