HP Licenses Visual Networks' WAN Monitoring Technology.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 1996--In an effort to help its customers better manage their enterprise networks, Hewlett-Packard Company today announces it has signed an agreement to cross-license and promote Visual Networks' wide area network (WAN) monitoring and analysis technology. As part of the licensing agreement, both companies plan to endorse and promote the Visual WAN Management Information Base (MIB) as the software architecture foundation on which standards-based WAN monitoring and management can be deployed.

Visual Networks' WAN MIB provides the same type of statistical information for the WAN environment as the Remote Monitoring (RMON) and RMON2 standards provide for the local area network (LAN) arena. It focuses on WAN parameters affecting overall network health, such as transmission impairments, virtual-circuit usage, network congestion and delay, routing overhead, and embedded LAN protocol statistics and decodes.

"Many RMON vendors try to force-fit their LAN software architecture into WAN environments, and users are usually disappointed with the results," said Andy Belcher, operations manager for HP's NetMetrix Operation. "In order to meet growing customer demand for effective enterprise monitoring and analysis solutions, we considered a number of options and concluded that Visual Networks' architecture was the best approach for managing the WAN component."

HP has licensed elements of the Visual UpTime product to complete its LAN/WAN enterprise monitoring solution. At the same time, Visual Networks will market its own version of Visual UpTime, which is integrated into DSUs/CSUs (Digital Service Units/Channel Service Units), forming a managed-access system for frame relay.

"With HP's support, we intend to better communicate to customers what is needed to manage WANs efficiently, particularly those based on frame relay and X.25," said Scott Stouffer, president and chief executive officer of Visual Networks. "Together, we plan to promote this architecture as the de facto standard for managing WANs."

Visual Networks, Inc., a privately-held company, is focused on providing managed access systems and support for the rapidly growing class of WANs based on public data services such as Frame Relay, the Internet, and ATM. Visual Networks is headquartered at 2092 Gaither Road, Rockville, MD 20850 with sales offices nationwide. For more information on Visual Networks and Visual OnRamp, please call [phone].

Information about Visual Networks and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.visual networks.com.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 105,200 employees and had revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com. -0-

NOTE TO THE EDITOR: Additional information on products from HP's Test & Measurement Organization can be obtained on the World Wide Web via http://www.tmo.hp.com.

CONTACT: Cunningham Communication, Inc. for HP

Kristina Thorngate, 408/447-6363

fax: [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]

or

Visual Networks, Inc.

Liz Mooradian, 301/330-7148

fax: [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]