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CN Selects NETSCOUT's nGenius Solution to Monitor Network Performance in Support of Transcontinental Rail Operations; Leading Railroad Uses nGenius Analytics for Early Warnings of Application and Network Performance Anomalies

May 03, 2006

WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2006--NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a leading provider of application and network performance management solutions, today announced that CN, a North American railroad industry leader, has deployed the nGenius(R) Solution to manage the performance of its business services. Additionally, CN is piloting the new nGenius(R) Analytics anomaly detection system to proactively warn of problems in network and application performance.

CN's freight services span Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, with connections to all points in North America. Its IT network supports more than 20,000 employees, 15,000 of whom are heavy network users, relying on the network to track shipments in real-time, process customer service transactions and fulfill order requests. The remaining employees in the field and on trains depend on the network to ensure that the company's extensive, automated rail system operates efficiently and safely.

CN uses the nGenius Solution with two nGenius Performance Manager servers to analyze and report on application performance data collected by nGenius Probes extensively deployed on its WAN infrastructure, train monitoring network, corporate offices, and data centers. The nGenius Solution enables CN to monitor a wide range of applications underlying business services.

Since the deployment of the nGenius Solution, CN has been able to improve a number of performance management and organizational processes, including troubleshooting application performance problems, capacity planning and collaborative planning for application roll-outs. For example, CN's networking group has used the nGenius Solution with its strategically placed nGenius Probes to:

  • Troubleshoot quality problems during a trial VoIP deployment;
  • ,li> Resolve a situation where a large number of desktop computers were unable to correctly map network drives by using NetScout's packet capture and analysis capabilities to identify a hidden client-server miscommunication;
  • Test the network impact of a Lotus Notes upgrade with the application team prior to full deployment to thousands of desktops;
  • Report on the performance of the business application that controls freight rail traffic; and
  • Reduce uncertainty about the true amount of actual network activity through the use of 1-minute views of application traffic enabled by NetScout's High Definition Performance Management technology.

"Our business operates in real-time with extensive automation, so we depend heavily on the corporate network remaining responsive," said Bruno Quesnel, senior network engineer with CN's Telecom Engineering Team. "The number of our remote sites and distinct classification of business services we monitor requires a reliable and highly granular network monitoring system. The nGenius System gives us the visibility we need to serve our user base and keep mission-critical business functions running at high efficiency."

CN deployed nGenius Analytics in a pilot test on their core WAN circuits, configuring the product to monitor and detect performance issues on physical and virtual network interfaces and within QoS classes carrying key business services. The ability to proactively alarm on performance of QoS classes is unique to NetScout's nGenius Analytics product. This feature allows CN to prioritize alarms in their top "Business Critical" QoS class for VoIP and mainframe applications running rail business services, over their secondary QoS classes for traffic such as email and desktop management updates. See today's related announcement "NetScout Introduces nGenius Analytics to Speed Performance Problem Resolution" (http://www.netscout.com/news/06/0503a.asp) for more product information.

"Through nGenius Analytics, I've been alerted to weird activity that I probably wouldn't have known about before," said Quesnel. "Having a tool that reports on anomalies, especially at the application/link layer is definitely a plus for our Network Optimization Team."

Quesnel is working to expand the use of the nGenius Solution to CN's new Network Optimization Team to assist with its mission. "Based on our experience with the product, I'm positioning nGenius Analytics to help us meet organizational goals to be more proactive in optimizing the network and cutting resolution times. Its dynamic alerts could eliminate unnecessary time spent configuring alarm systems, triaging alarms and hunting for evidence of a suspected problem. We'd like to quickly escalate events to the proper network personnel before a situation becomes critical."

Jim Frey, vice president of marketing at NetScout, said, "Large enterprises like CN, whose livelihood depends on sophisticated automation of physical and virtual resources, require greater intelligence in their approach to application and network performance management. With the full range of capabilities the nGenius Solution now provides, CN has access to accurate, reliable alarms with actionable data to optimize delivery of business services over their networks and stay ahead of performance threats."

About CN

Canadian National Railway Company spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./ Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated application and network performance management products and solutions that help IT organizations assure critical business services across the enterprise. More than 3000 leading companies and government organizations worldwide have deployed NetScout's nGenius(R) Performance Management System to 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.

NetScout and the NetScout logo, nGenius, and Quantiva are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. The CDM logo, MasterCare, Progressive Analytics 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.

CONTACT: NetScout Systems, Inc.
Dylan Locsin, 978-614-4113
locsind@netscout.com
http://www.netscout.com
or
Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
Brian Alberti, 781-418-2403
netscout@daviesmurphy.com

SOURCE: NetScout Systems, Inc.

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