Extends Current Relationship to Meet Customers' Management Requirements
- More Information on Cisco SwitchProbes
- More Information on Cisco Catalyst LAN Products
- More Information on CiscoWorks Switched Internetworking
SAN JOSE, Calif. - December 16, 1996 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced a strategic alliance which designates Frontier Software, Inc. of Chelmsford, MA, as its primary vendor for RMON-based technologies. This agreement significantly expands the joint development and deployment of Frontier products and technologies with selected Cisco products, underway since 1994.
"Our customers want end-to-end monitoring capabilities in Cisco infrastructure devices," said Stephen DeWitt, vice president of Cisco IOS softwareand network management marketing. "Frontier's NETscout products provide very scaleable RMON-based solutions. This relationship will help us meet customers' management requirements."
"This agreement, which builds upon the successful cooperation of both companies over the past three years, confirms Frontier's vision," said Narendra Popat, president of Frontier Software. "Cementing our status with Cisco as their strategic RMON vendor is a significant endorsement for our product quality and the effectiveness of our technology."
Cisco and Frontier Build Upon Existing Relationship
Cisco's Workgroup Business Unit, responsible for the Catalyst LAN switch product family, and Frontier Software have had a successful marketing and development relationship since 1994. In January 1995, the two companies jointly developed and introduced embedded RMON for Cisco's Catalyst 1200 switch, the industry's first implementation of embedded RMON instrumentation for LAN switches. In 1996, Cisco introduced its TrafficDirector and SwitchProbe products, based on Frontier's RMON technology, to provide comprehensive network management solutions for switched LAN environments.In addition, Cisco and Frontier have led the industry in delivering a comprehensive monitoring architecture for switching. The Catalyst family includes embedded RMON and automated, seven-layer monitoring (via Cisco's SPAN Port) of the traffic on any switch port with Cisco's roving SwitchProbe. This innovative architecture delivers extensive port monitoring and diagnostics without compromising switch performance. The Cisco SwitchProbe product line supports Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, CDDI and Fast Ethernet.
Frontier and Cisco have also worked closely to develop RMON instrumentation for advanced network management and analysis of ISL-based VLANs and to support the IEEE 802.1Q standard. CiscoWorks for Switched Internetworks integrates TrafficDirector with VLANDirector and CiscoView to provide an integrated management suite for today's switched internetworks.
The companies have also developed extensive seven-layer monitoring of Cisco routers through the NETscout family's support of Cisco's innovative NetFlow Switching architecture. This capability delivers extensive manageability to the Cisco 7000 series routers.
Future development activities will incorporate RMON support for all of Cisco's switch and router products. This will include using Frontier's EnterpriseRMONTM for the industry-leading Cisco IOS software architecture for internetworking solutions.
About Cisco and Frontier
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the leading globalsupplier of enterpriseinternetworking solutions,including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-upaccess servers and network management software. These products, integratedby theFrontier Software has been the industry leader in offering powerful, proactive solutions for network and application traffic monitoring, diagnosis and reporting. Frontier's award-winning NETscout Probes and NETscout Manager applications are based on EnterpriseRMON, a compliant superset of RMON1 and RMON2. The NETscout family provides unique solutions beyond RMON2 by supporting all LAN/WAN topologies including switched LANs, VLANs and Frame Relay. In addition, NETscout systems provide end-to-end standard or custom application monitoring for distributed enterprise networks. Frontier Software is headquartered in Chelmsford, MA. Company news and product-service information are available on Frontier's Web site: http://www.frontier.com.
Copyright ) 1996 CiscoSystems Inc. All rights reserved.
