Cbeyond Selects Micromuse's Netcool Suite; NETCOOL Applications Providing Proactive IP Management and Realtime Monitoring of Cbeyond's Broadband Applications Services.

Business Editors

Comnet 2001

Booth No.1546

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2001

Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE), the leading provider of realtime fault management and service assurance software, today announced that Cbeyond Communications, a broadband applications services provider, will utilize the Netcool(R) suite as the primary operations management software for monitoring its IP-based architecture for next generation broadband networks.

"The Netcool suite's ability to deploy rapidly and scale as we expand our services was a huge factor in our decision," said Wayne Bunting, Network and Technologies, Cbeyond. "The Netcool software easily integrated with our existing infrastructure and applications. By providing critical realtime status information on our network, Netcool helps us advance our operating efficiency, which will have an immediate impact on both our customer's satisfaction and the bottom line of our business."

Following a competitive analysis, Cbeyond selected Netcool/OMNIbus(TM), Micromuse's flagship application, along with Netcool/Internet Service Monitors(TM) (Netcool/ISMs), Netcool/Reporter(TM) and Netcool/Impact(TM) to help maintain the availability and reliability of its integrated offerings of voice, broadband Internet and IP-based applications, including email, Web hosting and video streaming.

Combined, the Netcool applications will enable realtime, end-to-end monitoring and management of Cbeyond's broadband network infrastructure - including servers, switches and routers, load-balancing equipment, and firewalls - as well as internal applications. Netcool/OMNIbus will collect, correlate and consolidate event information from existing network software including CommTech, HP OpenView, Remedy and InfoVista, providing a comprehensive integrated view of the infrastructure. Netcool/OMNIbus will help network administrators identify and address critical events anomalies before they result in an applications or services failure.

Cbeyond is deploying Micromuse's suite of 18 Netcool/ISMs to proactively measure compliance with its Service Level Agreements and the availability and response times of its Web hosting services. In addition, Netcool/ Reporter is providing Cbeyond's operations managers with key historical availability statistics to be used for service planning and trending, while Netcool/Impact is being used to determine how specific network faults might affect business processes, services and customers.

Cbeyond also selected Netcool Gateways to interface with the Remedy trouble-ticketing system to ensure that tickets are automatically populated with crucial customer information from the management infrastructure. This enables the company to streamline its overall operational efficiency for maintaining 24x7 service assurance and to meet predetermined customer service-level agreements (SLAs).

"We're very pleased to be working with a company like Cbeyond that is committed to providing the quality, variety of features and robustness found in the typical public network, together with the openness, innovation and speed of the Internet," said Adrian Rowland, Micromuse's Director Internet Strategies. "The Netcool suite can be configured and customized to support Cbeyond's open architecture environment and can providea rapid return on investment, enabling them to quickly reinvest savings into its state-of-the-art operating support systems and business support systems for their customers."

About the Netcool(R) Suite

Micromuse's Netcool(R) software suite collects management data from more than 300 management environments and network devices, including voice, data and Internet. Fault data is rapidly processed and filtered by the Netcool ObjectServer(TM), an in-memory database. The Netcool application helps operators to build views of service availability in realtime, helping them manage networks more efficiently. Because it is scalable and deploys rapidly, the Netcool suite helps service providers to expand their networks as their markets grow.

About Cbeyond

Cbeyond Communications, a national Broadband Applications Services Provider (BASP), is focusing on "bridging the digital divide" that currently denies small businesses access to the communications services they need at prices they can typically afford. Using Internet Protocol (IP) architecture Cbeyond has entered the market with an integrated product of local, long distance, Internet access and Internet-based applications such as Unified Messaging, Email, E-Commerce and Web Hosting. The business strategy is to facilitate the movement of business processes via Internet access, making possible electronic communications, collaboration and e-commerce opportunities that will enhance a small business's competitive strength and efficiency. Converged applications seamlessly integrated and delivered over a single platform is a marked improvement over legacy technologies, which are harder to implement, maintain and enhance, and more costly. Savings in capital and infrastructure are being reinvested into a decentralized, market approach to support a vision of high-touch customer service. For more information on Cbeyond, visit the website at www.Cbeyond.net.

About Micromuse

Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE) is the leading provider of realtime fault management and service assurance software. Micromuse was named one of the Top 25 Best Performers in the Wall Street Journal's Shareholder Scoreboard, and has recently been recognized in the Forbes 500, Business Week's Info Tech 100, Bloomberg's Top 100 Stocks, Barron's 500, Deloitte & Touche's Technology Fast 500,and the San Francisco Chronicle 500. Micromuse customers include AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Cellular One, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Telekom, Digex, EarthLink, GTE, Global Crossing, ITC^DeltaCom, MCI Worldcom, One2One, PSINet, XO Communications and a number of financial investment concerns. Headquarters are located at 139 Townsend Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94107; [phone]. The Web site is at www.micromuse.com.

Netcool and Micromuse are registered trademarks of Micromuse Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks in this document are the properties of their respective owners. Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include the following: fluctuations in customer demand, the Company's ability to manage its growth (including the ability to hire sufficient sales and technical personnel), the risks associated with the expansion of the Company's distribution channels, the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the Company's markets, the risks associated with competition, the risks associated with international sales as the Company expands its markets, and the ability of the Company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings, including but not limited to those appearing under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and on Form 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Company's Web site.