RiverSoft Launches Advanced IP Network Management Software Setting New Industry Standard.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001

Industry Pioneer Protects Businesses from

Potential Million-Dollar Losses in Network Downtime

RiverSoft (London Stock Exchange:RSFT.) today launched the third generation of its flagship IP network management solutions, RiverSoft Network Management Operating System (NMOS) and Fault Manager Version 3.

NMOS and Fault Manager are designed to combat the increasing issue of IP network downtime, which is costing businesses an average of $100,000 per hour, according to independent analyst estimates. The software reduces network downtime by performing real-time updating of a network's topology, providing customized views of business services and dynamically identifying and isolating the root-causes of network problems.

"The major improvements offered by RiverSoft's Version 3 software provide us with a significantly enhanced understanding of the dynamic changes in our network," said Matt Bird, IP Operations Manager at Carrier 1. "The greater depth and richness of the software enables us to minimize downtime to Carrier 1's customers and offer the first class service that they have come to expect. While Version 2 provided a facility for developing automatic tier one diagnostics, Version 3 allows us to build upon this, and will increase efficiency and productivity through the freeing up of manpower resources."

"IT departments within enterprise businesses and Internet Service providers are experiencing significant pressures to increase management efficiencies and promote higher productivity levels," said Elisabeth Rainge, director, IDC. "RiverSoft Version 3 works to address the challenges enterprises and ISPs face in a highly competitive market, which is to maximize end user productivity and meet service level agreements while at the same time reducing overall operational costs."

Continuing its commitment to innovation, RiverSoft has rearchitected RiverSoft NMOS and Fault Manager to include management capabilities that exceed the features and functionality of competitive offerings, strengthening RiverSoft's technological leadership. These new features, designed to increase network availability and deliver a higher return on an organization's investment, include Dynamic Discovery(TM), Central Management Console (CMC) and Containment Modeling. The underlying technology for these advancements is RiverSoft Active Object Classes (AOC), an intelligent database, which stores and communicates detailed network information to supporting applications.

Dynamic Discovery, an industry first, enables accurate, dynamic updating of the network topology without the need for a complete re-discovery of the network. Network changes are sensed as they occur. In contrast, most network management software requires full discovery of the entire network, using valuable network bandwidth and degrading the network's overall performance. Without Dynamic Discovery, full discoveries are typically performed once per day after business hours, forcing network administrators to diagnose problems during the day based on outdated information. Dynamic Discovery is the only instantaneous solution for network discovery.

The Central Management Console (CMC) is a flexible graphical user interface (GUI) that gives network administrators the ability to customize their own information display, perform diagnostics as well monitor the status of overall network health. CMC makes it easy to manage customers by associating network elements and events with applications, departments, customer services, networking technologies or geographical locations.

Containment Modeling enables administrators to automatically model the impact of any action or occurrence with specific network devices. By accurately depicting the true use of the network, RiverSoft can correctly model the complex network inter-relationships inherent in VLANs, VPNs and applications, producing accurate identification of faults and detailing their impact on business services.

Active Object Classes (AOC) virtually eliminates cumbersome rules writing and streamlines network management procedures. Through the use of AOCs, NMOS and Fault Manager centralize and store detailed definitions of behavior characteristics for each network device, including its identity, connectivity and management requirements. The defined behavior characteristics for one device are inherited by all other devices with the same make and model, simplifying the integration process of new devices. AOCs employ Policy-Based Management, allowing all aspects of the network to be managed from a single point, providing unmatched automation to network administrators.

"Service providers and enterprises rely on their networks to keep their businesses up and running and at the same time expect to reap a high return on their investments. With RiverSoft NMOS and Fault Manager, users can now solve problems with greater speed and accuracy and with fewer IT resources," said Phil Tee, chairman and CTO of RiverSoft. "During a time when budgets and staff must be maximized, RiverSoft enables service providers to better manage service delivery and allows enterprises to maintain 24X7 business operations." RiverSoft NMOS and Fault Manager Version 3 Highlights:

Dynamic Discovery

-- Dynamic updating of the network topology

-- Maintains an accurate model of the network at all times

-- Allows immediate integration of changes into the network map for accurate
fault isolation

Central Management Console (CMC)

-- Produces both event and topology views, facilitating the

customer needs and business services

-- Provides organizations with knowledge of their network's

status and a clear delineation of critical network problems

and their effects

-- Allows association of disparate technologies with business

processes

Containment Model

-- Allows organizations to view non-physical entities on the

network

-- Enables modeling of the true use of networks and produces

accurate identification of faults and their impact

-- Creates the ability to logically view the network and

prioritize according to business relationships

Active Object Classes (AOC)

-- Automates and centralizes network management, increasing

productivity

-- AOCs contain all critical information needed for topology

mapping, applying management policies, polling and fault

correlation behavior

-- Virtually eliminates manual network device configuration

Pricing and Availability

RiverSoft NMOS and Fault Manager Version 3 are currently shipping with prices beginning at $25,000, depending upon network size.

About RiverSoft Solutions

RiverSoft software is designed to substantially improve IP network availability by building a topology of the network and then using this information to isolate the root-cause of network problems. The software discovers, recognizes and adapts to changes in IP networks with minimal need for human intervention, allowing customers to more efficiently and effectively manage networks.

RiverSoft solutions are comprised of the Network Management Operating System (NMOS), a sophisticated platform that automatically discovers the configuration of the network and continuously monitors it and a Fault Manager application that isolates the root-cause of network problems.

About RiverSoft

RiverSoft provides advanced IP network management solutions that have been designed to adapt to the rapid pace of change in today's IP networks. RiverSoft customers and partners include Deutsche Bank, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corporation, Level 3 Communications and Siemens Network Systems Limited. Information about RiverSoft and its solutions may be found on the World Wide Web at www.riversoft.com.