NetScout Introduces nGenius Analytics to Speed Performance Problem Resolution.

WESTFORD, Mass. -- Early Warning System Provides Automated Identification and Diagnosis of Application and Network Performance Problems to Reduce Business Downtime and Improve IT Efficiency

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a leading provider of application and network performance management solutions, today introduced nGenius(R) Analytics, the industry's first application flow-based anomaly detection system for automated network and application performance management. nGenius(R) Analytics provides highly qualified, proactive alarms with initial problem diagnoses to help IT operations prevent and resolve performance problems faster, improving business service reliability and IT efficiency.

Currently, the process of identifying and correcting network-based performance problems is slow, labor-intensive and heavily dependent on the experience level of the person completing the troubleshooting tasks. Traditional approaches depend on alarms set on static thresholds, which require repetitive adjustments on an often impossibly large number of monitored metrics. Such threshold alarms are frequently inaccurate and ineffective, as they have been de-tuned or set at high levels to prevent IT teams from being inundated with false alerts. In fact, in a 2005 survey of IT professionals by analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates, only 18 percent of respondents reported receiving alerts of application problems prior to notification by a customer or user.(1) Analysis efforts are further aggravated by the lack of clear, objective information to help isolate the source of problems.

nGenius Analytics addresses these challenges by applying patented, statistical behavior modeling and anomaly detection to application flow data, to deliver early warnings of performance issues. The product automatically learns behavior patterns and identifies performance anomalies without the manual configuration and guesswork of setting thresholds. nGenius Analytics couples alarms with initial diagnostic technology to automatically produce clear information that network and operations managers can act on to resolve issues before end users are impacted.

Leading enterprises such as Bell Canada, Canada's largest telecommunications company; CN, a North American railroad industry leader; and Kaiser Permanente, America's leading health plan provider, have all recognized the need to reduce the impact of network and application performance problems on business services.

CN Senior Network Engineer Bruno Quesnel said, "Based on our experience with the product, I'm positioning nGenius Analytics to help us meet organizational goals to be more proactive in optimizing the network and cutting resolution times. Its dynamic alerts could eliminate unnecessary time spent configuring alarm systems, triaging alarms and hunting for evidence of a suspected problem. We'd like to quickly escalate events to the proper network personnel before a situation becomes critical." For more details on CN's pilot of nGenius Analytics, see today's related announcement "CN Selects NetScout's nGenius Solution to Monitor Network Performance in Support of Transcontinental Rail Operations." (http://www.netscout.com/news/06/0503c.asp)

"The task of accurately identifying and manually diagnosing performance issues will intensify as service delivery infrastructures become more interdependent with the deployment of n-tier applications, Web services, and SOA," said Jeffrey Nudler, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. "To maintain high IT service levels, as a result of these looming changes operations teams will have to deploy technologies enabling granular flow metrics and automated analysis that NetScout is offering with nGenius Analytics."

NetScout developed nGenius Analytics from technology acquired in its 2005 purchase of Quantiva. The technology is a cornerstone for NetScout's Application Fabric Performance Management (AFPM) strategy to help enterprise customers optimize and protect services within the emerging distributed, virtualized application resource fabric. For more on AFPM, see today's related announcement "NetScout Systems Introduces the Application Fabric Performance Management Architecture." (http://www.netscout.com/news/06/0503b.asp)

"With the introduction of nGenius Analytics, NetScout is making performance management directly relevant to front-line operations," said Michael Szabados, senior vice president of product operations for NetScout. "Our solutions already deliver high definition performance intelligence on an enterprise scale, and this new product leverages that core strength to identify and analyze key indicators in the proactive manner that is becoming a necessity for assuring IT services. With nGenius Analytics, we have also accomplished our first substantial deliverable within our AFPM strategy to deliver powerful performance management solutions for the application fabric of the future."

Features of nGenius Analytics include:

--Proactive alarms with contextual diagnostic information;

--Alarm viewing via nGenius Performance Manager for further investigation;

--Alarm (or trap) integration with third-party enterprise and network management platforms and event consoles for aggregation with other system alerts;

--Analysis of flow-based data from NetScout's nGenius Probes and nGenius Flow Collectors for NetFlow;

--Progressive Analytics(TM) technology with a patented analysis process to provide a scalable and distributed solution for reducing mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) in the virtualized and distributed application infrastructure;

--Monitoring and analysis of virtualized networks such as VLANs, VPNs and MPLS, simultaneously with associated QoS classes;

--Enterprise-class scalability to monitor more than 10,000 interfaces with a single appliance;

--Singular alerts that aggregate related problems detected across multiple interfaces; and

--Tight integration with nGenius Performance Manager allowing simple product rollout and seamless workflow when troubleshooting.

Availability & Pricing

Available since May 1, nGenius Analytics version 1.1 is delivered on an appliance to complement deployments of the nGenius Performance Management System, at a list price of $65,000.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated application and network performance management products and solutions that help IT organizations assure critical business services across the enterprise. More than 3000 leading companies and government organizations worldwide have deployed NetScout's nGenius(R) Performance Management System to increase their return on infrastructure investments by optimizing the performance of networks and applications according to business priorities. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has offices worldwide. Further information is available at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout and the NetScout logo, nGenius, and Quantiva are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. The CDM logo, MasterCare, Progressive Analytics and the MasterCare logo, are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. Other brands, product names and trademarks are property of their respective owners. NetScout reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make changes at any time in its technical information and specifications, and service and support programs.

(1)Enterprise Management Associates "Facing the Service Management Chasm: How Business Applications Crumble in the Real World," May 2005