News Release

Cisco Systems Ships Product Maximizing Web Scalability

DistributedDirector Product Offers Network-Intelligent Load Distribution
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Mar 20, 1997



SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 20, 1997 - Cisco Systems, Inc. todayannounced it is shipping DistributedDirector, the first Cisco IOS(TM)software application designed to enable global scalability for allIP-based network services.

DistributedDirector provides dynamic and transparent IP traffic loaddistribution between multiple dispersed servers. Using routing tableintelligence in the network infrastructure DistributedDirectortransparently redirects end-user service requests to the nearestresponsive server. As a result, end users benefit from reducedtransmissions costs, increased access performance and maximized serveravailability. DistributedDirector is complementary to the Cisco LocalDirector product, which provides the same functions for multiple serversin a single location. As a combined offering, they firmly establishCisco as the leader in global IP service scaling solutions.

"DistributedDirector represents an important milestone for Cisco sinceit is the first stand alone non-routing, non-switching Cisco IOSsoftware application," said Alex Mendez, vice president of Cisco IOSsoftware marketing at Cisco. "The delivery of this product furtheraffirms Cisco IOS software as the premier platform enabling networkservices to enterprise customers as well as Internet service providers.DistributedDirector offers a truly unique solution to global networkservice scalability challenges."

"We expect Cisco's DistributedDirector to be an integral and strategiccomponent in scaling MSN, The Microsoft Network and our internalnetworks in 1997," said Arne Josefsberg, Director of MSN NetworkServices at Microsoft Corp. "We are very pleased withDistributedDirector's robust functionality and flexibility as exhibitedduring our battery of tests, simulating both Internet and intranetenvironments. One key feature for which we see immediate application isthe DistributedDirector's ability to reliably redirect traffic to onlineservers."

"DistributedDirector provides advanced load redirection capabilitieswhich we find very useful in handling the high traffic demands of ourcustomers," said Mark Shull, vice president and general manager ofNetwork-Centric Solutions at BBN Planet in Palo Alto, Calif. "Ascustomers move their business applications to the Internet, we viewnetwork-intelligent redirection as an essential element in distributingtransactions among our nationwide, high-performance application hostingcenters."

"We're enthusiastic about the promising capabilities ofDistributedDirector," said Steve Strange, Director of InformationSystems for Infoseek, one of the Internet's leading search andnavigation providers located in Santa Clara, Calif. "As one of the mostfrequently visited sites on the Internet, we're excited aboutDistributedDirector's potential to help us intelligently distributemillions of requests across topologically dispersed servers, and toprovide high quality service to our rapidly expanding user base."

"Using Cisco's DistributedDirector, our Internet Data Center clients cannow take advantage of increased server access and availability," saidShandra Sekhar, president of Exodus Communications in San Jose, Calif. "The Exodus mirroring solution, which utilizes the DistributedDirectorsystem, assures our customers that their Internet traffic will bereliably redirected to the optimal destination even in the event of aserver or network failure."

"Cisco's DistributedDirector makes it possible for us to deploy ourGlobal Virtual Service (GVS) architecture due to its intelligentredirection decisions and server availability checks," said PushpendraMohta, vice president of Internet Services at TCG CERFnet in San Diego,Calif. " Distributed Director provides a crucial element in TCGCERFnet's global fault tolerant content distribution strategy thatpowers our high performance Web SuperSite architecture. Since itenables transparent distribution of services across geographicallydispersed servers, DistributedDirector eliminates traditionalgeographic single points of failure."

About DistributedDirector

DistributedDirector can act as a Domain Name Service (DNS) cachingnameserver or as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) sessionredirector, on a per host name basis. When used in DNS cachingnameserver mode, DistributedDirector provides transparent servicedistribution for all IP traffic. In this mode, DistributedDirectorreturns an IP address of the best server to the client's local DNS,independent of the particular Internet service requested at that IPaddress. DistributedDirector maps a host name to several possible IPaddresses and uses the intelligence in the network infrastructure todynamically determine the best IP-address-to-DNS-name binding for agiven host name, based on client-to-server topological proximity.DistributedDirector also has the ability to only run HTTP traffic, whenused solely in the HTTP mode. In this mode, DistributedDirectormasquerades as the requested Web server and returns an HTTP-specificstatus code to redirect clients' browsers to the topologically nearestWeb server.

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News andinformation are available at http://www.cisco.com.

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