Network General Delivers Network Visibility Solution Set: Comprehensive Product Suite for Distributed Fault and Performance Management; Solution Components Provide Insight into the Performance Relationship Between the Network and its Applications, Databases and Devices

Business Wire, July 1, 1996

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 1, 1996--Network General Corporation (NASDAQ: NETG), a leading network fault and performance management solutions provider, today announced the Network Visibility Solution Set, a complementary set of UNIX-based network fault and performance management tools designed to deliver enhanced network performance, reliability and quality of service. Based on upgrades and additions to existing Network General offerings, the Network Visibility Solution Set draws upon multiple information sources, including Sun Solaris, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, Silicon Graphics IRIX, and Auspex servers, Cisco routers, Oracle and Sybase databases, and distributed RMON2 and Network General Sniffer technology, to collect statistics from all seven layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Leveraging a combination of complementary management applications, this information allows network managers to quickly and easily isolate and resolve problems before they impact the performance and reliability of the network.

"Historically, our unique Sniffer expert analysis has made our products easier to use and helps define Experience Technology, our key to adding exceptional value," commented Les Denend, president and CEO of Network General. "Now, we extend that value with complementary products to deliver a distributed management solution that helps our customers solve problems in complex, heterogeneous networks and we deliver this capability at an affordable price. Future products, including introductions later this year, will continue to build upon this solution orientation delivering broader scope and more integration," he added.

Solution Set Components

The Network Visibility Solution Set continues Network General's commitment to deliver Total Network Visibility. Each component of the solution provides information about a different aspect of the network, networked applications, databases (Oracle, Sybase), servers (Sun, Auspex, Hewlett-Packard) and routers (Cisco).

"Because of the complexity of today's heterogeneous networks, it's necessary to have visibility not only into the network, but into its major components, including databases, systems and key network devices," said Greg Gilliom, chief technical officer at Network General. "The Network Visibility Solution Set provides that level of visibility, making it easier to quickly identify the underlying cause of network performance and reliability problems."

As a whole, the solution provides visibility into all seven layers of OSI traffic -- including the application layer -- and visibility across all local and remote network segments. Components include:

Distributed Sniffer System 4.0 -- Deployed on all enterprise backbone and mission-critical segments, the Distributed Sniffer System provides visibility into all seven OSI layers, including the interrelationships between the network and databases (Oracle7, Sybase) and HTTP Internet/Intranet traffic on the World Wide Web. Experience Technology, built into the system, delivers protocol decodes and expert analysis for immediate problem identification and resolution. Version 4.0 provides expert support for the latest high speed technologies including Fast Ethernet and FDDI, plus internetwork visibility into ISDN. Easy integration with Cabletron Spectrum management system is now available in addition to HP OpenView, SunNet Manager and IBM's NetView for AIX.

Foundation Manager for UNIX 1.2 & Foundation Manager for Windows 2.6 -- A central RMON console for Foundation Agents/Probes or other RMON agents, Foundation Manager allows users to see statistics in real-time with QuickStats, as well as provide automated recording of historical statistics. The reporting based on these statistics enables proactive management such as trend analysis and baselining. Moreover, with support for RMON2 and Serial Line Interface Protocol (SLIP), Foundation Manager for UNIX now provides greater visibility into the upper layers of the OSI model and ensures collection of information on segments even if the router or network has gone down. Foundation Manager for Windows 2.6 has been designed to leverage existing resources by providing support for Windows '95 and interoperability with embedded agents. Foundation Manager for UNIX also provides this interoperability and is available for SunOS, HP-UX, IBM AIX and Sun Solaris.

Foundation Agents/Probes 4.0 -- Deployed on all local and remote Ethernet segments and Token Rings, aggressively priced RMON agents and probes provide continuous monitoring of protocol traffic at all seven layers. Product features include: RMON2 support compliant with RMON2 drafts, SLIP support, remote configuration and multi-port capability -- up to four Ethernet ports or three Token Ring ports can be simultaneously monitored with one PC.

SharpShooter 3.0 -- An integrated, UNIX-based server management solution, SharpShooter provides performance monitoring, troubleshooting and reporting capabilities for entire server farms. These capabilities help maximize performance and reliability of Network File System (NFS), database, and application servers and make it easy to identify the specific users, programs and applications causing CPU, memory and disk I/O problems. Version 3.0 adds support for Internet and Web servers, facilitating better management of corporate intranets.