NetScout Moves the Industry Toward Proactive Network Management With Major Enhancements to its Early-Warning System for Application Performance and VoIP Assurance.

nGenius Analytics 1.2 Enables Network Managers to Stop Problems Before They Impact Business, Meet Mean Time to Restore MBOs

WESTFORD, Mass. and LAS VEGAS -- NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), the industry pacesetter for advanced network and service assurance solutions, today announced from the show floor of Interop Las Vegas 2007 the availability of nGenius([R] )Analytics Version 1.2. With this release, nGenius Analytics now includes features designed to proactively monitor VoIP quality metrics, increases in the volume of previously "unknown" traffic, application response time increases, and application utilization decreases - all critical aspects to assuring services and reducing Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) on today's converged networks.

The announcement comes at a time when pressure is mounting in the data center: according to NetScout's annual customer survey, companies are getting serious about shrinking MTTR by setting MTTR goals for the network team and reinforcing them with management by objectives (MBO) directives. In slightly more than a year's time, the survey data shows a nearly fourfold increase in the percentage of customers reporting they have an MBO directive on MTTR--from 6.3 percent in 2006 to 23 percent in 2007. At the same time, these network managers report they are still dependent on the angry end-user call to kick off the problem identification and resolution process: three-quarters of IT managers said a primary source of performance problem information is the irritated end-user who calls the help desk (see related announcement issued today: "Survey Reveals Users of Sophisticated Network Monitoring Tools Diagnose Network Performance Problems 69 Percent Faster").

"Today, network teams are being measured and compensated based on the speed with which they restore services. Tomorrow, they can expect to be held accountable for averting problems before services are impacted," said Michael Szabados, COO of NetScout. "Our customers clearly need to know of impending issues before the irritated end-user call comes in. nGenius Analytics gives the network team highly qualified alarms to meet these new requirements, so that early diagnostic efforts are focused, fruitful and fast."

"KPI to Flow to Packet": NetScout's Unique Approach

nGenius Analytics is an integral piece of NetScout's unique "KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to Flow to Packet" approach, designed to enable proactive network management: it gives network managers highly qualified early warnings based on once-indiscernible anomalies and then allows them to seamlessly and contextually "drill down" as far as required--into application and conversation flow details or even into the packet sequences themselves--until the problem is diagnosed.

Benefits new to nGenius Analytics 1.2 include:

* Early warnings to potential VoIP degradations. nGenius Analytics 1.2 analyzes VoIP quality metrics by passively monitoring jitter. For organizations deploying VoIP applications, nGenius Analytics will be a crucial element in the assurance of call quality, as dropped or choppy calls are unacceptable. For instance, hospitals whose doctors depend on VoIP phones for consulting one another on critical patient care issues cannot have calls interrupted by other urgent applications, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS).

* Early warnings on application response time increases and application utilization decreases. A NetScout customer in the credit card processing industry was keenly interested in receiving early warnings of application utilization decreases as well as application response time increases. The company handles one million transactions per day and earns a percent of the dollar value of each transaction. The bottom line takes a hit if credit card transactions fail to be processed, either because the application is slow (application response time increase) or if fewer transactions are being fully processed (application utilization decreases). With nGenius Analytics 1.2 this company will be able to prevent both types of problems by getting intelligent early warnings.

* Alarming on the "Unknown". One of the key challenges for network operators is keeping up with recognizing all of the applications that are active in a large, distributed environment. nGenius Analytics 1.2 adds new functionality for alarming on increases in the volume of previously undefined, or "unknown" traffic. Working with nGenius([R] )Performance Manager 4.1, operators can quickly drill into the unknown traffic mix to pinpoint its constituents.

* Immediate anomaly discovery. nGenius Analytics 1.2 is fully integrated with and seeded by nGenius Performance Manager 4.1, so nGenius System users will recognize anomalies as soon as they turn up the system. Since the system studies normal network behavior and only reports anomalies, network teams using nGenius Analytics indicate they receive only a fraction of the alarms they once received, all highly qualified.

"While traditional threshold-based performance alarms do offer value, the sheer administrative burden associated with deploying them in organizations of any appreciable size has prevented them from playing much more than a reactive role in most IT shops," said well-known industry analyst Jim Metzler. "Newer analytics technologies such as NetScout's nGenius Analytics change the balance toward the proactive by providing the ability to automatically detect abnormal network and application behavior and then provide an intelligent alarm that includes detailed data to kick-start the diagnostic process. This could mean a real tide change for IT organizations that are striving to adopt a more service-oriented approach in supporting the business."

For more information on best practices for network and application performance monitoring, please attend the "Managing and Controlling Application Performance" panel discussion at Interop Las Vegas on Wednesday, May 23 at 10:15 a.m. Jim Frey, NetScout's vice president of marketing, will be among the panelists.

Pricing and Availability

NetScout nGenius Analytics Version 1.2 is available now, with enterprise pricing starting at $50,000 USD.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) has been the industry pacesetter for advanced network and service assurance solutions for over a decade, and counts the world's largest enterprises, government agencies, and service providers among its customers. Enterprise and government IT organizations deploy NetScout's nGenius([R]) Performance Management System to increase service levels to their users by reducing or preventing service disruptions. Service providers depend on NetScout's proven IP performance management technology and expertise to protect the quality of their customers' experience with IP-based services. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has offices worldwide. Further information is available at http://www.netscout.com.

(c)2007 NetScout Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. NetScout and the NetScout logo, nGenius, and Quantiva are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. The CDM logo, MasterCare, the MasterCare logo and Progressive Analytics 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.