Cognex Corporation Selects SilverBack's Innovative InfoCare MSP Solution.

Business/Technology Editors

BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001

InfoCare to Provide Cognex with Advanced Security and Monitoring

Capabilities to Improve Delivery of Critical Network & Systems

Information

SilverBack Technologies, Inc., a leading full-service Management Service Provider (MSP), today announced that Cognex Corporation, the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, has selected its InfoCare service to provide advanced IT monitoring, security and reporting capabilities to help deliver information services more cost-effectively. Cognex has chosen to implement SilverBack's base InfoCare service and plans to roll out additional services and features during the coming months. Since deployment, Cognex has realized significantly improved IT efficiency through the ability to deploy valued IT resources and staff members to other areas of IT, including capacity planning and proactive network monitoring and reporting.

"We have only had InfoCare up and running for four weeks now, and already we've seen dramatic IS improvements through the ability to proactively capture and analyze valuable network and systems information to help us better control our IT resources," said Bob Cuneo, director of IT at Cognex. "In minutes I was receiving actionable IT information that I wasn't getting from our previous reporting system. With InfoCare, I have access to real-time data that is specific to each device within my network and systems environment. For the first time in recent memory, I control the network; the network doesn't control me."

For Cognex, a multinational company with revenue of approximately $250 million and regional offices throughout the U.S. and overseas, InfoCare provides a cost-effective IT management service which delivers multiple industry-leading software applications including performance monitoring, asset inventory, security scanning and alert escalation for better care of networks.

SilverBack's InfoCare solution is a management service that enables businesses to run their IT computing environments more proactively and efficiently. InfoCare provides multiple monitoring, reporting and security applications within a single subscription-based service offering. All applications are integrated and hosted securely on the customer's site, providing maximum application control and guaranteed access. SilverBack's turnkey installation and maintenance model, broad suite of features and overall ease of use correlate to increased network uptime and improved IT efficiency.

"The demand for our integrated information service has grown significantly over the last year," said John Igoe, president and CEO of SilverBack. "Companies such as Cognex recognize the importance of accessing reliable IT and security information quickly and cost-effectively. At the same time, Cognex, as well as many other companies we work with today, wants to retain control of its valued IT resources and wants the benefits of partnering without relinquishing ownership. SilverBack's InfoCare service provides the right balance between IT management outsourcing and internal control and in the opinion of many industry experts including Tolly Group and McConnell Associates, is the best at providing both in the market today."

About Cognex Corporation

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision systems, or computers that can "see." Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 100,000 machine vision systems, representing over $1 Billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. Cognex's Modular Vision Systems Division, headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for automating the manufacture of a wide range of discrete items and for assuring their quality. Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division, headquartered in Alameda, California, specializes in machine vision systems, also known as web inspection systems, which are used for inspecting the surfaces of products manufactured in a continuous fashion, such as metals, paper, and plastics. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

About SilverBack

Silverback Technologies, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, was founded in spring 1999 by former executives of Nortel Networks Corporation and Micromuse, Inc. SilverBack is an industry pioneer Management Service Provider (MSP) and has developed a turnkey service that delivers specific, timely and actionable information to front-line network managers, planners and executive management via a Web-based portal. SilverBack is a founding and executive member of the MSP Association, an international industry consortium formed to define, shape and promote the emerging managed network services sector to aid in accelerating the adoption of MSPs. For more information on SilverBack, please visit their Web site at www.silverbacktech.com.

SilverBack Technologies derives its name from the eldest member of the African mountain gorilla species due largely in part to the defining characteristics that the gorilla possesses including leadership, loyalty, adaptability, dependability and an on-going commitment to protect other members of the gorilla band. SilverBack is a patron of the Gorilla Foundation, which promotes the protection, preservation and propagation of gorillas.