BGS Systems Combines Performance Management For NT And UNIX.

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 1997--

BEST/1 for Distributed Systems, The First to Deliver Complete

Performance and Capacity Management Solutions for NT,

UNIX, and Mixed UNIX/NT

BGS Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BGSS), the leading provider of IT performance management solutions, today announced the industry's only comprehensive Performance Assurance implementation for Windows NT and UNIX systems -- BEST/1 for Distributed Systems.

BEST/1 for Distributed systems gives IT organizations the ability to understand how business applications perform today and predict how they will perform in the future. It combines industry-leading data collection techniques with analysis, modeling, and display capabilities to answer today's complex performance questions. This industrial-strength approach is the result of years of BGS experience in transforming UNIX and NT performance data into meaningful information about the performance of key applications and resources.

Jim McGuire, COO of BGS, said, "As the market embraces NT as a mission-critical platform, BEST/1 for Distributed Systems will enable enterprises to manage the performance of any mixture of UNIX and NT systems. Now, whether a company is managing UNIX, NT - or both - BEST/1 for Distributed Systems will address all their performance issues in a seamless, integrated fashion. Just last week, we signed a $4 million order with a major communications company. In essence, they are basing the future success of their IT infrastructure on BEST/1 for Distributed Systems which tells us we are definitely on the right track!"

John Webster, Director of IT Consulting for the Yankee Group, stated, "Medium to large-scale enterprises are challenged with managing heterogeneous environments that include UNIX- and NT -based mission critical applications. BEST/1 for Distributed Systems offers the first real performance analysis and management solution for open systems that is both flexible and effective. In addition, it brings proactive monitoring to the open systems environment."

Susan Aldrich, of the Patricia Seybold Group, commented, "In order to manage performance and capacity, you have to track workloads across platforms and bring the data into a single, consistent, analysis and modeling tool. BEST/1 for Distributed Systems collects and integrates UNIX and NT performance data, enabling customers to manage today's distributed applications. Because BGS has a long track record of highly accurate modeling and reporting, they have the credentials and capability to address performance issues in today's multi-platform environments."

Managing the Performance of Business Applications

For organizations deploying business applications across any combination of UNIX and/or NT platforms, BEST/1 for Distributed Systems addresses key IT performance issues:

--Capacity requirements of new applications can be sized before they are deployed

--Service levels and user expectations can be managed through accurate tracking and analysis

--Potential problems can be spotted before they occur

--Critical real-time problems can be pinpointed and responses can be automated

These benefits make BEST/1 for Distributed Systems the most comprehensive, cost-effective solution available today.

Bringing Cross-Platform Performance Assurance to UNIX and NT

The Performance Assurance approach ensures data accuracy, efficient data collection and analysis, and simplified operations. This approach is built into the three essential functions of performance management:

--Real-time monitoring, alerting, and automatic responses for pinpointing and diagnosing performance problems;

--Accurate historical analysis and graphical reporting on application and system performance to determine what is normal, identify exceptions, and communicate performance issues;

--"What if" performance modeling and capacity planning to predict the impact of change on existing applications and resources, and to spot and prevent problems before they arise.

Intelligent "Single Agent" Architecture

BEST/1 for Distributed Systems is unique in its single low-overhead data collection agent. It gives IT professionals the most accurate data for tracking the performance of resources, applications, and users. The collected data is then used as the foundation for BEST/1 real-time alerting, historical analysis and reporting, and capacity planning. Because all of the performance data is available - all the time - comprehensive analysis is straightforward, and can be adapted easily as the environment or scope of the problem changes. The single agent on each managed system can also serve multiple BEST/1 management consoles so that other departments can use different views of the same data to resolve performance issues, without additional overhead or excessive network traffic.

Product Availability

BEST/1 for Distributed Systems is expected to ship on October 31 and will include:

--Real-time analysis of UNIX and NT

--Historical analysis and reporting of UNIX and NT

--Predictive modeling of UNIX environments (available for NT January 31, 1998)

This release also provides real-time application response time management for applications instrumented with the new Application Response Management (ARM)-standard API. Best/1 for Distributed Systems has integrated support for Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, MS Exchange, and SAP R/3.

About BGS Systems

BGS Systems, Inc., founded in 1975, is a public company with headquarters in Waltham, MA. BEST/1 for Distributed Systems is part of the BGS Enterprise-Wide Performance Assurance framework. This consistent approach to managing performance and capacity across major computing platforms and networked environments (including UNIX, NT, MVS, VM, AS/400, OpenVMS, and OS/2) is in use today at over 30,000 installations throughout the world. More information on BGS Systems and its products can be found at the BGS Web site: www.bgs.com, or by calling 781-891-0000. -0-

BGS, BEST/1 and Performance Assurance are registered trademarks of BGS Systems, Inc. All other products and/or company names are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sheroff & Associates BGS Systems, Inc.

Christine Sheroff Linda Nidle

508-435-3306 781-891-0000

[e-mail] [e-mail]