Riverstone Networks Leads Industry Consortium to Foster ASP Standards and Research.

Business/Technology Editors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000

Riverstone Networks, the leader in application-aware Internet routing and a Cabletron Systems company (NYSE:CS), today announced that it has joined the fast-growing Application Service Provider (ASP) Industry Consortium, an international advocacy group dedicated to fostering greater understanding of, and guidelines for, the rapidly emerging application service provider segment of the computer industry.

Riverstone Networks is a leader in building the application-aware infrastructure that is crucial to high-speed ASP operation. As the only vendor to extend true application-level Quality-of-Service (QoS) over the wide area network, Riverstone provides an extensive array of products and services optimized for ASPs including intelligent load balancers, web-cache redirectors and software tools for provisioning, billing, accounting, monitoring, fault isolation, and service-level management. Riverstone maintains a commanding 97% market share in the crucial WAN segment of the Layer-3 switch market according to market research by the Dell'Oro group. In addition, Riverstone has the only family of multi-layer switch routers to support a complete set of WAN interfaces from T1/T3 to Packet-over-SONET OC-3c / OC-12c and ATM OC-12c.

In joining the ASP Industry Consortium, Riverstone intends to actively work with network service providers and independent software vendors to provide the high-performance and scalable traffic management solutions needed for large-scale application service provisioning sites. Joining the ASP Industry Consortium demonstrates further commitment to the ASP space as Riverstone is an existing member of the Citrix Business Alliance through which ASP customers use Citrix thin client software together with Riverstone's hardware-based content provisioning switches and traffic management devices.

"We are pleased that Riverstone Networks has joined the ASP Industry Consortium," said Richard Frank, vice president of strategic alliances at eOnline Inc., the leading ASP for SAP solutions and a Riverstone strategic partner. "Riverstone is one of our standard offerings for powering the technology engine in our application service centers. Knowing that it is working with consortium members like SAP, gives us the confidence that the service we offer is truly optimized for performance, availability and scalability."

"Application Service Providers are driving the next major inflection point in the growth of the Internet economy," said Romulus Pereira, president, Riverstone Networks. "The ASP Industry Consortium provides a much needed forum to develop and deliver standards that will enable the adoption of new IT business models to allow enterprise customers to focus on their core businesses while maintaining their competitive edge".

The consortium has formed four working committees, which are developing the consortium's operating plans: Education and Outreach, Research, Best Practices, and Membership. Committee work was launched at the first all-member meeting of the ASP Industry Consortium in San Francisco in August 1999, and initial deliverables were announced at the consortium's second meeting in November in Colorado. The third meeting of the consortium will take place in London, UK on 2 May, 2000 preceding the Internet ASP Forum Conference on May 3rd and 4th at which Riverstone Networks will provide a panel speaker to talk on ASP Outsourcing Issues. For conference details refer to: http://www.ambitsf.com/

About the ASP Industry Consortium

The Application Service Provider Industry Consortium is an advocacy group of companies formed to promote the application service provider industry by sponsoring research, fostering standards, and articulating the measurable benefits of this evolving delivery model. The Massachusetts-based Consortium has grown quickly over the past year. Launched in May 1999 at Networld + Interop in Las Vegas with 25 companies, the consortium now has over 425 members.

Information on the ASP Industry Consortium is available on the World Wide Web at www.aspindustry.org or by contacting consortium headquarters at: ASP Industry Consortium, Inc., 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, Mass. 01880; Tel: +[1]-(781)-246-9321.

About Riverstone Networks Inc.

Riverstone Networks designs and builds communication infrastructure for ISPs, MSOs and metro network providers, as well as for the data center needs of co-location, content hosting and ASPs. From hosting centers to WAN backbones, Riverstone networking equipment enables the end-to-end service-rich infrastructure that powers rapid subscriber growth, prevents subscriber churn, and increases service provider profit. Led by the award winning RS family of multilayer switch routers, Riverstone solutions include Internet routers, application-aware switch routers, intelligent load balancers, web cache redirectors as well as software tools for provisioning, accounting, billing and service level management. Visit us at http://www.riverstonenet.com/.

About Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems is a holding company for four of the most innovative, customer-focused organizations in the telecommunications and networking industry. In addition to Riverstone Networks, Cabletron's portfolio of companies includes Enterasys--the only provider of total network solutions singularly focused on enterprise-class customers--, Global Network Technology Services (GNTS)-- one of the largest independent network-consulting firms in the world--and Aprisma Management Technologies-- the leading provider of intuitive multi-vendor management solutions that meet the service level requirements of enterprise and service provider customers.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a decade under the symbol CS, Cabletron is an S&P 500 index company. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at http://www.cabletron.com.