Nakina Systems Unveils Nakina Network OS(TM) 6.

Architecture Breakthrough Enables Service Providers to Eliminate Stranded Bandwidth and Rapidly Deploy Next-Generation Applications

DALLAS -- Nakina Systems Inc. ("Nakina"), an independent software vendor delivering innovative management solutions to communication service providers worldwide, today announced the launch of Nakina Network OS[TM] 6, the next version of the company's flagship product.

Among many of the significant additions, Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 introduces three critical breakthroughs:

Co The ability to facilitate the elimination of stranded bandwidth in a service provider's network. Industry estimates in recent years suggest that 20 percent to 40 percent of a service provider's assets remain stranded. This is especially prevalent in older networks, representing hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure, where many years of use have resulted in operations support systems (OSSs) that are substantially out-of-sync with what is in the network. Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 fully discovers the physical and logical network constructs, in addition to alarms and events from multi-vendor networks. By correlating network operational state with accurate inventory, Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 provides a powerful tool to detect and recover stranded assets, allowing service providers to generate revenues on them while significantly reducing unnecessary CAPEX.

Co The ability for OSS developers - including service provider information technology groups or independent software vendors - to extend Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 in support of vendor-specific, differentiating features. In addition to providing a powerful, generic management platform, Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 now provides the added ability for developers to extend the platform so as to leverage unique features available through each vendor's networking equipment, without the need for Nakina to intervene with changes to its framework.

Co The ability for network equipment vendors to extend Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 to handle all functionality provided by their network elements. Through previous versions of Nakina Network OS[TM], network equipment vendors have been able to instantly acquire a carrier-grade element and network management system (EMS/NMS) solution for their hardware that scales to tens of thousands of network elements. This was achieved by building a simple device driver (network adapter) to interface the Nakina Network OS[TM] with their hardware. Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 provides yet another innovation in allowing equipment vendors to extend the management system to manage all of their specialized functionality, allowing their development teams to focus on the creation of value-added, differentiating features rather than re-inventing basic fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security management (FCAPS) features.

With this latest release, Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 further collapses the EMS and NMS layers of network management to provide a single point of integration between network elements and higher-level OSS and business support systems (BSS). The system works seamlessly for both legacy and next-generation multi-vendor networks, significantly reducing "integration tax" to higher level OSS/BSS systems along with operating expenditures related to managing many disparate management systems.

"In our early years, we addressed the challenges of providing carrier-grade scalability and an effective adapter strategy. We now have actual tier 1 deployments that span thousands of network elements using adapters of which more than half were developed by third parties leveraging our Software Development Toolkits," said Chris Purdy, chief technology officer (CTO) at Nakina. "The next great challenge was to structure our software architecture in order to rapidly absorb new technologies or vendor features in a timely fashion. With release 6, we've solved that issue, allowing third parties to extend the Nakina Network OS for their purposes without the need to influence Nakina's core product development plans."

"Our tier-one service provider customers have experienced tremendous success with initial deployments of Nakina Network OS," said Mary O'Neill, vice president of market development at Nakina. "While early customer deployments focused on transport networks, they have since expanded their deployments significantly. The end result is that today, well over 60 percent of the elements managed by Nakina are next-generation Ethernet service devices and other network element types well outside of the transport domain."

Nakina Systems is showcasing its Nakina Network OS[TM] 6 suite in booth 219 at this year's TeleManagement World (TMW) Americas show in Dallas, December 4-7, 2006.

About Nakina Systems

Nakina Systems provides network operators worldwide with one platform to discover, manage and secure their multi-vendor networks. Using Nakina's software, service providers expedite the rollout of next-generation services by deploying a single management solution for use in configuring and managing any vendor's networking products, thereby circumventing traditional OSS problems that have hampered the introduction of new technologies in the past. Nakina's software equally helps bolster security and eliminate headaches caused by shared passwords on networks by using centralized security and password administration. It eliminates the chaos of "swivel chair management" by consolidating the management of any hardware vendor's networking equipment onto a single user interface, with common methods and procedures. And it substantially improves productivity with the automation of everyday operations like software upgrades and equipment configuration. All with one, scalable, carrier-grade system. Only from Nakina. www.nakinasystems.com

Nakina, Nakina Systems, Simply Profitable Networks, and Nakina Network OS are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Nakina Systems Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.