Network Health to Support Cisco's IOS-based RTR, NetFlow and WAN Manager forEnd-to-End Service Level Agreement Reporting
MARLBORO, Mass. and SAN JOSE, Calif. -- December 14, 1998 -- Concord Communications., Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRD), the leading provider of Web-based network reporting and analysis solutions, and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced an expansive multi-technology relationship. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco and Concord will work together to deliver scalable, end-to-end Service Level Management (SLM) solutions which allow service providers to monitor and document compliance to Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Working with Cisco and Concord, Cisco's preferred network performance reporting vendor, service providers can achieve unrivalled new ways of guaranteeing network performance.
Cisco recently announced unique statistics collection technologies that cover three key areas: the Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), Point-of-Presence (PoP) and Wide Area Network (WAN) core devices. Using these new data sources, Concord will expand the Network Health product to the CPE for end-to-end response time and packet loss statistics, to the PoPs for detailed traffic flow analysis, and to the WAN core for detailed statistics on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay. By gathering and reporting on these statistics, Concord's Network Health. applications make it possible for service providers to guarantee performance on Internet Protocol (IP), ATM and Frame Relay networks previously only available by using standalone monitoring hardware.
"As Qwest is poised to deliver unprecedented Service Level Agreements that ensure 100 percent network availability and zero percent packet loss over our native IP network, we need state-of-the-art SLA monitoring instrumentation and scalable reporting applications," said Larry Seese, executive vice president of network engineering and operations for Qwest Communications International, Inc. "The promise of future endeavors between Concord and Cisco into RTR and NetFlow enhances our ability to meet customers' expanding SLA requirements particularly for the IP-based VPN and voice multimedia data services."
Network Health - Cisco WAN Manager, the first product resulting from the Cisco/Concord relationship, is a scalable solution that efficiently collects network performance data. Instead of pulling performance data from individual switches, Network Health - Cisco WAN Manager extracts it directly from Cisco WAN Manager, Cisco's network and element management application for Cisco's wide-area switches. By eliminating performance queries to each switch, Network Health - Cisco WAN Manager reduces performance query traffic, frees up bandwidth and improves switch performance. Subsequent deliverables for Cisco's IOS.-based Response Time Reporter (RTR) and NetFlow will complete the end-to-end solution for IP-VPNs, Voice-over-IP and Managed Network Service (MNS) environments.
"As we continue to improve and expand our network, we know that we need intelligent SLA monitoring instrumentation that can scale and fit seamlessly into our router-based infrastructure," said Mike Kallet, senior vice president of operations and engineering at Netcom. "Cisco's new RTR, an IOS-based embedded agent, has allowed us to leverage our existing network investments while providing the price and performance necessary to deliver increased service levels to our customers-ultimately reducing customer turnover."
"Service providers want to provide new world, high-margin services such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Voice-over-IP solutions. Recent research we conducted with Renaissance Worldwide indicates customer willingness to pay premiums for guaranteed service quality," said John McConnell, president of McConnell Associates. "This relationship between Cisco and Concord meets the needs of both parties in enabling service providers to easily demonstrate to customers that contracted service levels such as response time and packet loss are being met."
"We are pleased to be working with Concord in the area of service level reporting. Concord's expertise in performance reporting is complementary to the wealth of detailed information embedded in Cisco equipment. By joining forces, we are delivering end-to-end, Service Level Management solutions to our customers through the Cisco Service Management System," said Herb Madan, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Network and Service Management Business Unit.
"The broad array of Cisco networking solutions and embedded intelligent agents such as NetFlow and RTR, have positioned Cisco as the clear market leader in delivering the infrastructure necessary to meet service provider needs," said Kevin Conklin, vice president of marketing for Concord Communications. "By using the reporting technology leadership embodied in Network Health across the entire Cisco product line, Cisco and Concord fundamentally enhance the art of Service Level Management."
Concord and Cisco also announced today a cooperative reference selling and joint marketing agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Concord and Cisco will reference each other's products to potential joint customers, and will participate in joint sales calls.
Concord recently announced a relationship with Cisco, combining the PING Management Information Base (MIB) found in Cisco routers with Network Health's automated reports to provide the most accurate, comprehensive measure of latency and network services across carrier and large enterprise networks. Concord also participated in the CiscoWorks2000 Management Connection which provides a direct link from CiscoWorks2000 to Network Health's comprehensive set of IT performance reports and to valuable online help information from Concord's Web site.
Pricing and Availability
Network Health - Cisco WAN Manager will be available within 90 days through the Concord Communications worldwide direct sales force, sales agents and value added resellers (VARs). The integrated module, with special support and services, is priced at $15,000, U.S. list.About Network Health
The Network Health family of analysis and reporting solutions includes ATM, Frame Relay, LAN/WAN, Remote Access, Router/Switch, Server, Service Level Reports and Traffic Accountant modules. These award-winning solutions share the same underlying database and acclaimed presentation format to provide a consistent and fully correlated "total view" of the entire IT infrastructure. The combined suite of Network Health products offers a complete solution, or an incremental migration path for performance analysis and streamlined reporting of an organization's entire client/server infrastructure-from servers to the backbone and wide-area connections.About Concord Communications
Concord Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRD) is the leading developer of Web-based network reporting and analysis solutions that provide customers with the information they need to measure the effectiveness of their IT investment. The premier service providers, ISPs and Fortune 1000 companies turn to Concord each morning to assess the health of their corporate networks. Concord is headquartered in Marlboro, Massachusetts. For more information about Concord, call 1-800-851-8725 or visit Concord's World Wide Web site.Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.For more information visit Cisco PR Contacts
The Total View is a trademark, and Concord, the Concord logo and Network Health are registered trademarks of Concord Communications, Inc.
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