Bay Networks and DeskTalk Systems announce marketing and development agreement; Companies address customer need for flexible monitoring of complex networks.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 1996--Bay Networks, Inc. Internet/Telecom Business Unit (NYSE: BAY) and DeskTalk Systems, Inc. today announced a cooperative marketing and development agreement to provide Bay Networks' service provider customers with data collection capabilities critical in effectively managing their large-scale, layered internetworks.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will cooperatively market and develop future enhancements to the complementary solution set that is currently available and based on DeskTalk's TRENDsnmp network performance monitoring and reporting product and the ITBU's product families, including the 5000 MultiService Switch (MSX), Backbone Node (BN) routers, BayStream multiservice software, and the Optivity suite of network management applications.

"Leveraging the strengths of TRENDsnmp and the comprehensive data available from Bay Networks product lines, our service provider customers now have a highly customizable solution which enables the optimal collection of network performance information -- all presented in a meaningful, workable manner so network managers can make informed decisions," said Mick Scully, vice president, product and market management, Bay Networks' ITBU.

"We are extremely pleased to team with Bay Networks to provide enhanced monitoring and reporting solutions for the Bay Networks ITBU product lines," said David Kaufman, president of DeskTalk. "This relationship allows us to fully leverage the extensive performance and billing functionality of Bay Networks' multiservice switches and high-performance routers."

First introduced in late 1994, TRENDsnmp is a data collection, aggregation, management, and reporting system and will be applied to Bay Network's products to provide trend, configuration and capacity planning information, as well as feed data to Billing applications. Because TRENDsnmp is a distributed software suite based on a high-performance, modular, scalable, client-server architecture, users can browse MIBs and define "polling policies" to collect data; distributed pollers collect raw data and then its processed and stored in distributed RDBMS repositories. Periodic aggregations then roll-up averages, totals, minimum and maximum values by the hour, day, week, and month. TRENDsnmp's open SQL database facilitates integration with other NMS or third-party reporting tools.

Bay Networks' BayStream is multiservice software that delivers unsurpassed WAN functionality by providing integrated Frame Relay switching, Frame Relay interworking and IP routing in a single platform. BayStream runs on Bay Networks' full line of hubs and routers. The company's 5000 MultiService Switch (MSX) is a flexible chassis-based solution for SPs supporting dial access, routing, switching, and shared media. Dial Access Module additions may be used alone or in conjunction with other 5000 MSX modules and include: Remote Annex/PRI -- PRI mixed traffic remote access server module; Remote Annex/CT1 -- Channelized T-1 remote access server module, and; Remote Annex/Async -- 24 analog port dial-in remote access server module. The BN router family includes the Backbone Link Node (BLN) and the Backbone Concentrator Node (BCN) and provides the high-performance routing architecture required at the edge of the Internet or Frame Relay backbone. As the market's leading suite of network management applications, Optivity is a family of solutions that monitor and manage networks based on Bay Networks equipment. Optivity operates on the industry's most popular UNIX-based management platforms, including HP OpenView, SunNet Manager and IBM NetView/6000.

Bay Networks, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the internetworking market, providing a full line of products that serve enterprises, workgroups, small offices and mobile workers. The company offers LAN and ATM switches, hubs, routers, remote and Internet access solutions, and network management applications, all unified by the BaySIS architecture. With revenue of $2.1 billion over the past four fiscal quarters, Bay Networks markets and supports its products around the world, providing 7x24 support coverage. Bay Networks' World Wide Web address is: http://www.baynetworks.com.

DeskTalk Systems, Inc. is a leading supplier of modular performance management tools and applications. TRENDsnmp client-server products are available for, and interoperate between, the following platforms: HP-UX, IBM AIX, SunSolaris, SunOS, WindowsNT and Windows 95. Major corporations use DeskTalk's TRENDsnmp products for network and distributed system monitoring and reporting. DeskTalk is a privately held company with headquarters in Torrance, California. On the World Wide Web, DeskTalk can be found at http://www.desktalk.com.

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Note to Editors: Bay Networks, BayStream, 5000 MultiService Switch (MSX), Backbone Concentrator Node and Backbone Link Node are trademarks of Bay Networks, Inc. Optivity, BN and BCN are registered trademarks of Bay Networks, Inc. DeskTalk and the DeskTalk logo are registered trademarks of DeskTalk Systems, Inc. All other brands and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Karin Bakis

Bay Networks, Inc.

617-238-6594

[e-mail]

or

Mary MacGregor

MacGregor PR, for DeskTalk

619-360-9014

[e-mail]

or

Tom Huchel

DeskTalk Systems

310-323-5998

[e-mail]