Emperative Introduces New Breakthrough Optical Service Provisioning Software; Emperative Integrates with Ciena and Redback for Multi-Vendor Provisioning Strategy.

Business/Technology Editors

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2001

Emperative, Inc., the leading provider of on-demand, network and service provisioning software, today introduced ProvEn Optical, a new breakthrough provisioning software that cuts the time it takes to activate service across multi-vendor fiber optic networks from months to minutes. ProvEn Optical extends Emperative's reach across all high-speed broadband technologies to offer single-touch, end-to-end automated service provisioning across multi-vendor metro access, core and long-haul networks--an industry first. Simultaneously, Emperative announced ProvEn Optical's integration with optical equipment from Redback Networks (Nasdaq: RBAK) and Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN).

"Today's provisioning processes are a bottleneck that will not sustain the rapid acquisition and management of enterprise customers. If it's not changed, the industry will have serious long-term growth issues," said Scott Clavenna, president of PointEast Research. "Automating the provisioning of optical networks is especially compelling because it ultimately gives control to the end users. Emperative is clearly at the center of one of 2001's most exciting areas to watch."

Emperative has already demonstrated success in broadband cable and DSL. Customers include Cox Communications and Road Runner, the nation's second largest provider of high-speed cable modem service. With the introduction of ProvEn Optical, Emperative has positioned itself as the first to automate provisioning across broadband access (DSL and cable) and fiber optic networks.

"Provisioning is a problem each and every service provider--from metro-access to broadband DSL services--wrestle with every day," said Abraham Gutman, Emperative president and CEO. "The optical industry is still in its infancy and has not yet broken the provisioning bottleneck. ProvEn Optical will do so by automating provisioning even across the most complex heterogeneous networks and deliver end users services in real-time."

Automated service provisioning across optical networks is one of the hottest growth areas in the communications industry. Analysts expect the "optical provisioning software" market to grow to over $5.6 billion by 2004(a). It is poised for growth, first, because the explosive demand for bandwidth has pushed the limits of existing provisioning systems that take weeks or months to turn on service. Second, service providers have invested billions of dollars on infrastructure such as IP, ATM, SONET, and DWDM equipment, and require a provisioning platform that automates and manages the many complex events necessary to deliver services across different vendor equipment, operational support systems, and applications. ProvEn Optical addresses both of these issues by enabling rapid activation and delivery of new services and management of provisioning processes in a multi-vendor environment.

Currently, activating even a single circuit across optical networks is a highly manual, time consuming and cost-intensive process. It takes service providers weeks or even months to activate new customers or to deliver additional bandwidth to existing customers. ProvEn Optical aims to reduce this wait to minutes by offering single-touch, end-to-end service creation and activation. As the providers' businesses mature to offering value-added services, ProvEn Optical supports the creation and delivery of these on-demand services.

Service Provisioning Speed

Before providers can manage the delivery of services to end users they must overcome the complexity of managing multi-vendor networks. For this reason Emperative has designed its provisioning engine to be both transport- and vendor-agnostic. In its Broadband Service Provisioning Lab, based in Boulder, CO, Emperative integrated with Redback's SmartEdge and Ciena's CoreDirector in less than two months--a radical step forward in how long traditional approaches have taken. ProvEn Optical has undergone acceptance testing with Ciena and Redback. By the end of the first quarter, Emperative also will have interfaces for the Cyras K2, Nortel OPTera 5200, and Cisco 15454.

Emperative's speed gives optical service providers an added advantage as they continue to expand into new metropolitan markets and swap-in next-generation optical equipment: what they currently achieve in 12 to 18 months can now be done in several weeks. ProvEn Optical accomplishes this by managing the equipment directly (using CORBA, TL/1, etc.) or acting as a "manager of managers" that integrates with each network equipment vendor's element management system. It provides a single management platform for activating and delivering services to end-users.

The ProvEn Optical offering includes a state-based, fully Java provisioning engine, a model developer kit for the service provider's marketing and operations staff to define business processes and service packages, predefined intelligent interfaces to OSSs, applications and network equipment such as Redback's SmartEdge and Ciena's CoreDirector, to accept service activation and management requests from web-based and customer service front-end applications. Additionally, ProvEn Optical gives service providers the user interface tools to manage the most pressing provisioning issue: rapid circuit activation. These graphical user interface (GUI) tools include:

-- Network Manager--Lets service providers manage all of their sites and
associated hardware within each site from a single interface.

-- Link Manager--Allows service providers to add, modify, or delete circuit
links. Information available through the Link Manager includes node data from
the Network Manager, port data, unique link names, link rates, and link types
(e.g. SONET/SDH, DWDM, etc.).

-- Connection Manager--Shields network operators from the complexity of
multi-vendor, multi-element service provisioning. It supports point-and click
creation, activation and deletion of end-to-end circuits across multiple
sub-networks. Routes are calculated using a configurable set of parameters
including hop count, weighted links/nodes, included/excluded nodes, time, and
sub-network connections.

ProvEn Optical is generally available at a starting price of $200,000. Intelligent interfaces known as ilets (eye-lets) are available off-the-shelf for optical network elements, OSSs, and applications.

About Emperative

Founded in August 1998, Emperative, Inc. is the leading provider of on-demand, multi-vendor network and service provisioning products for access and core optical, DSL, cable and wireless networks. Our management team hails from industry powerhouses such as Telcordia Technologies, US West (now Qwest Communications Int 'l), MediaOne, Hewlett-Packard and Lucent Technologies. Emperative is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts and has a development office in Boulder, Colorado. For information on Emperative products, services and career opportunities, visit us at www.emperative.com or e-mail us at [e-mail].

(a) Managing the All-Optical Network, by Communications Industry Researchers, the Charlottesville, VA-based optical industry market research and strategy consulting firm, (November 2000).