NETSCOUT Systems Joins the Storage Networking Industry Association

07 May 2003

First Enterprise-Wide Network Performance Management Company Dedicated to Helping Companies Manage Performance of the 'N in SAN'

WESTFORD, Mass., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NetScout Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT), a leading provider of network performance management solutions, today announced that it is the first enterprise-class network and application performance management vendor to join the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the SNIA's Storage Management Forum. In joining, NetScout is extending its commitment to the development of standards and technologies that reduce the complexities of managing storage area networks. Like the preceding LAN and WAN management communities, the SAN management community will be able to realize significant operational and cost advantages through NetScout's efforts to foster awareness and development of flow-based performance management options for storage traffic across the extended enterprise network.

NetScout is a market leader in enterprise-wide real-time monitoring and reporting solutions that increase the performance and efficiency of large, mission-critical network environments. For more than 15 years, the company has led the innovation of standards for management information in the data networking industry which have been adopted industry-wide by both infrastructure and solutions vendors. Under its CDM(TM) Initiative, NetScout is expanding its nGenius(R) Performance Management solution to reduce management complexities through the delivery of unified network and application performance management under a single, enterprise-wide solution.

In December 2002, NetScout extended its nGenius Performance Management solution into Fibre Channel environments to aid enterprises at the forefront of the SAN industry in addressing the significant management challenges emanating from increased SAN size and complexity. The nGenius solution deepens the IT manager's visibility into SAN activity and storage traffic behavior, allowing a full range of performance management tasks ranging from proactive bandwidth optimization to troubleshooting interoperability.

"With the rapid expansion and adoption of networked storage technologies, now is the right time for NetScout to lend its 15+ years of network management expertise to the SNIA," says Bruce Kelley, CTO of NetScout Systems. "The need for visibility into storage traffic flows is already being felt by enterprises operating large, multi-vendor storage environments and will only increase as deployments continue to expand. We are excited to be a part of this emerging and evolving industry."

About the SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit organization, made up of over 300 companies and individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share a common goal: to set the pace of the industry by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete and trusted solutions across the IT community. To this end the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. For information visit the SNIA web site at http://www.snia.org.

About the SNIA Storage Management Forum

The Storage Management Forum (SM-F) is driving the first common and interoperable management backbone for storage networks called the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S). By sponsoring plugfests, educational events, compliance testing, and certification programs, the SM-F works to promote the broad adoption and proliferation of a single standard management interface for multi-vendor storage networks. For more information visit http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/SMI/.

About NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated network performance management products that unify performance across the enterprise. NetScout's nGenius(R) Performance Management System is helping more than 3000 leading companies increase their return on infrastructure investments by optimizing the performance of networks and applications according to business priorities. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has offices worldwide. Further information is available at http://www.netscout.com.

(C)2003 NetScout Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. NetScout and the NetScout logo, and nGenius are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. ART MIB, Because the Network is the Business, CDM and the CDM logo, and MasterCare and the MasterCare logo, are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. Other brands, product names and trademarks are property of their respective owners. NetScout reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make changes at any time in its technical information and specifications, and service and support programs.

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

SOURCE NetScout Systems, Inc.