Optimal Networks Announces Distributed Application Performance Analyzer.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 1997--

Optimal Application Expert Troubleshoots and Predicts

End-User Response Time for Distributed Applications During

Development, Deployment, and Ongoing Operation

Optimal Networks Corporation continues to evolve the breadth of their network performance management tools with the introduction of Optimal Application Expert, a new Windows-based distributed application performance analyzer. Optimal Application Expert monitors, analyzes, reports, and models application traffic throughout the entire "application cycle." The cycle of an application consists of three stages - development, deployment and ongoing operation, stages which today are managed independently of each other, yet from a quality and performance stand point are highly interdependent. Application developers and network managers can use Optimal Application Expert as a common tool to troubleshoot and predict end-user response-time to create high performance distributed applications.

"Application development today reminds me of Detroit in the 50's and 60's," said Maurice Bailey, CEO of Optimal Networks. "Cars would be manufactured on the assembly line and after they rolled into the parking lot, workers with toolkits would run around the parking lot fixing them. Dr. Deming, the quality guru, found that it was more efficient to concentrate on quality throughout the entire process, and worked with Japanese companies to incorporate quality throughout the manufacturing process, so when cars rolled off the assembly line there were no problems. Similarly today, applications are developed in engineering and then handed to network managers to deploy, at which point many performance problems are found. Optimal Application Expert enables network quality to be built into the entire application cycle by providing a common tool to be used in all three stages."

Development

In the development stage Optimal Application Expert helps application developers to troubleshoot and predict end-user response-time problems over a network. Optimal Application Expert also helps developers pinpoint trouble spots within their applications that will slow network performance. When problems are found, either during development or testing of an application, a developer can easily instrument their source code to determine how to optimize the application. This is accomplished through an OLE programming interface which allows the developer quickly and easily to instrument their application to determine exactly where in the code the problem is occurring.

"When developing multi-tier Web-enabled applications, we use Optimal Application Expert to identify the processing time in servers and to pinpoint which pieces of our code need to be optimized," said Dave Laprise, senior software quality engineer for Lotus Development Corporation. "Optimal Application Expert shortened our development cycle by allowing us to predict response-time over a WAN and focus optimization efforts to the pieces of the application that would have the most impact. Optimal Application Expert has become a standard tool in our development process."

"Because distributed applications are very complex, they have been difficult to troubleshoot. Optimal Application Expert is the first tool that traces the multiple threads of a distributed application, enabling network managers to easily pinpoint the cause of performance problems. This insight enables a dialog between the network manager and the application developer that they can both understand," said Peter Sevcik, principal at Northeast Consulting Resources.

Deployment

In the deployment stage Optimal Application Expert enables network managers to predict application response-time and determine the WAN bandwidth capacity requirements before live deployment. This information allows them to optimize the network for the application (i.e., server placement and bandwidth), show the developers how to optimize the application for the network, and set realistic user expectations and service level agreements based on response-time predictions.

"We expect that in five years 90 percent of applications will be distributed. Currently, the majority of distributed applications are being developed and deployed without regard to their impact on business-critical networks. Consequently, they frequently do not meet performance goals and can cause serious negative impact on business processes. Optimal Application Expert helps network managers avoid these pitfalls by optimizing the deployment of applications on their networks," said Virginia Brooks, director of Network Access Technologies at Aberdeen Group.

Ongoing Operations and Application Performance Management

In the ongoing operations stage Optimal Application Expert helps network managers quickly pinpoint the source of the performance problem, whether it is the network, the server, the client or the application. This allows the network manager to focus resources on fixing the problem rather than finding the problem. If the problem is located within the application, network managers can use Optimal Application Expert to communicate with application developers in order to solve the problem within the code.

"Until now, network administrators have had two challenging problems: delivering higher service quality and dealing with the impacts of application deployment," said John McConnell, president of McConnell Consulting, Inc. "With Optimal Application Expert, network managers can quickly pinpoint the problem in the client, the server, the network or the applications. Application impacts can be predicted from tracking behavior, allowing administrators to roll out applications without being caught short of resources."

"For the past two years network managers have complained that their networks are changing, but the tools to manage them are not. Increasingly complex distributed applications are quickly becoming the network manager's focus, but the analysis and troubleshooting of these applications is the network manager's blind spot. Optimal Application Expert addresses this new set of problems by providing the unique functionality needed to quickly troubleshoot and optimize distributed applications. Optimal Application Expert even predicts the effect of different network topologies on end-user response time. The result is faster applications and better response-time," said Jay Weil, founder and vice president of consulting services for Optimal Networks.

Optimal Application Expert

Optimal Application Expert is a Windows-based distributed application analyzer. Application developers and network managers can use Optimal Application Expert as a common tool to troubleshoot and predict end-user response-time of distributed applications. Optimal Application Expert is designed to integrate with other Optimal Networks products, providing an easy migration path to advanced management capabilities, such as analysis, modeling and simulation of an enterprise network. All Optimal Networks products will integrate with each other, but are sold as standalone products.

Optimal Networks

Optimal Networks' software products troubleshoot, monitor, map, and model networks and the applications that run on them. The information derived from Optimal Networks' products are used by application developers to develop high quality, network sensitive applications. The products are also used by application and network managers to deploy applications with low risk and operate applications to meet service level requirements. Optimal Networks also offers software maintenance, training, and consulting services. Optimal Networks is a California corporation with principal offices at 1057 East Meadow Circle, Palo Alto, California. For further information about Optimal Networks, contact Optimal Networks Corporation at [phone] or visit the Optimal Networks web site at http://www.optimal.com . -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Optimal Application Expert, Optimal Consulting, Optimal Surveyor, Optimal Performance, Optimal Internet Monitor and iMON are trademarks of Optimal Networks Corporation. All other companies and products as they appear in this bulletin are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Optimal Networks Corporation

Jay Weil, 415/845-6333

[e-mail]

or

A&R Partners

Nicolet Gibson, 415/363-0982

[e-mail]