NETSCOUT Systems Introduces High Definition Performance Management

06 Dec 2004
    Leads Industry With Next Major Evolution of CDM Technology, Increasing
  Granularity and Restoring Visibility for Managing Network and Application
                                 Performance

WESTFORD, Mass., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NetScout Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) today announced a new technology initiative that further extends its lead in providing the industry's most comprehensive and powerful network and application performance management solutions. With the introduction of High Definition Performance Management (HDPM), NetScout is directly addressing the critical need for detailed, granular visibility of application performance in today's large, complex, global enterprise and governmental networks.

Two parallel trends have motivated NetScout to bring these capabilities to the market. First, application traffic loads on the network are continuing to increase, both as a result of broader use of applications as a basis for real- time business and due to the deployment of a continuing series of layers and complexity within the application layer, including IP voice, web services, Citrix and multicast/multimedia. Driven largely by this need, enterprises and governmental organizations are upgrading to higher speed infrastructures together with a variety of virtual network and QoS traffic prioritization schemes in order to protect the integrity of mission-critical applications and services. As a result, requirements for visibility into the health and activity of those applications are changing, demanding more detailed information at a higher rate of collection in order to provide the necessary hard information for IT organizations to assure service delivery and adequately provide decision support.

NetScout is meeting these challenges by extending its nGenius(R) Performance Management System with High Definition capabilities in three key areas:

     -- First, by recording comprehensive details on all traffic flows, all
     the time, collecting and retaining an unprecedented level of granularity
     in historical application and network traffic data, including sustained
     recording of all conversations and activity on 60-second intervals and
     including 1-second peaks.

     -- Second, by delivering rich visibility into the actual usage and
     activity of today's varied and complex enterprise applications, such as
     recognizing, tracking and reporting web traffic per specific URL or sub-
     URL, applications being served over Citrix MetaFrame, multimedia
     streaming via IP Multicast, peer-to-peer sessions, and multi-layered
     applications utilizing web services architectures.

     -- And third, by simultaneously capturing and revealing comprehensive
     details of user and application utilization by any and all combinations
     of individual or aggregated physical or virtual network constructs, most

     importantly including transparency for QoS policy groupings and
     prioritization schemes.

These capabilities coalesce to deliver a framework that IT organizations can leverage for decision support, operational optimization, proactive service assurance, and rapid response to degradations and failures. Further, with this evolution step, NetScout will have the groundwork in place to operate on the rich application and network performance data collected via its patent- pending CDM Technology.

"It is great to see leading industry vendors expanding customer value from within their existing product footprint," said Dennis Drogseth, vice president, Enterprise Management Associates. "The HDPM approach fits right into our vision of how the network management industry is evolving, and NetScout is in the right place at the right time to deliver."

"The CDM (TM) strategy and architecture that NetScout launched over two years ago is allowing us to address major new challenges that are changing the complexion of the performance management landscape," said Anil Singhal, president, CEO, and co-founder of NetScout Systems. "With the advent of our High Definition capabilities, NetScout is pulling away from the rest of the field of performance tool vendors, establishing a generational gap between our solution and analyzer-based or statistical approaches, without requiring our customers to undertake a wholesale upgrade."

Availability

High Definition extensions to the nGenius Performance Management System will be available within 60 days as cost-free upgrades for all current owners of nGenius(R) Performance Manager and nGenius(R) Probe products under NetScout's MasterCare program.

About NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated network and application performance management products and solutions 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.

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


SOURCE  NetScout Systems, Inc.
    -0-                             12/06/2004
    /CONTACT:   Peggy Flynn of NetScout Systems, +1-978-614-4162,
flynnp@netscout.com; or Dawn Sullivan or Erin Del Llano of Schwartz
Communications, Inc., +1-781-684-0770, netscout@schwartz-pr.com  /
    /Web site:  http://www.netscout.com/
    (NTCT)

CO:  NetScout Systems, Inc.
ST:  Massachusetts
IN:  CPR NET STW
SU:  PDT

CG-EO 
-- NEM019 --
2315 12/06/2004 09:05 EST http://www.prnewswire.com