Hamline University Implements Sitara's QoSWorks to Manage Network Resources

Business Wire, June 26, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001

QoSWorks Enables Hamline to Balance Mission-Critical Applications with

Usage of Monster IP Applications

Sitara(TM) Networks, Inc., the leading provider of integrated QoS (Quality of Service) solutions that intelligently match the needs of applications and networks for enterprises and service providers, today announced Hamline University has adopted Sitara Networks' QoSWorks(TM), for allocating bandwidth and prioritizing traffic across the University's wide area network (WAN). Hamline implemented this technology as part of its efforts to address the needs of its teaching staff for more efficient day-to-day processes.

Hamline is a private university in Minnesota with 4,000 students and like many educational institutions, they found their T1 connections were being compromised by student traffic. Downloads from entertainment sites (MP3 and video) consumed over 50 percent of the University's bandwidth. Seeking a solution to traffic congestion, they turned to QoSWorks to classify and shape, assess usage and even break traffic out by what's coming in and what's going out.

"Some universities are using Packeteer, but their classification process causes latency we couldn't afford. When we looked at Sitara, we discovered they add caching, which is important to us. And I could get QoSWorks with the extra features for the same amount of money," said Anthony Schroeder, director of network services at Hamline University.

"Hamline came to us looking to ease congestion from student downloads from sites like Napster and allocate greater bandwidth to important traffic like web research," said Rick Kerber, territory manager at Data Accessories of Minnesota, a Sitara Premium Partner. "We were able to immediately prioritize traffic and optimize their network with our QoS solution from Sitara."

Schroeder's team installed QoSWorks during Spring Break with zero network downtime. In fact, it made such an improvement in the network's efficiency that the traffic levels remained the same even after the students returned. Since the University has standardized on Sitara, they no longer worry about temporarily losing a T1, which is what happened in early May. QoSWorks enabled them to adjust their packet shaping and keep traffic flowing until the line was available again.

"Colleges and universities are struggling to meet the varying demands put on their networks, from MP3 and video downloads to teaching activities and mission-critical applications. With our QoS platform, we have been able to provide them with cost-efficient ways to utilize the bandwidth they have rather than continuously adding more," said Manickam Sridhar, CTO, Sitara Networks.

About the Sitara Networks Product Family

Sitara's product family leverages the company's integrated QoS platform and enables enterprises and service providers to deploy new e-business applications, protect critical application performance, and improve network efficiency. This QoS platform includes multiple tools that deploy automatically to manage a wide range of traffic types and is built on open, industry-standard computing technology. Sitara Networks' products, including QoSWorks, QoSArray, and QoSDirector, are cost-effective and scale to incorporate future tools and techniques needed to manage the high traffic, mission-critical network and application demands of enterprises and service providers.

About Sitara Networks

Sitara Networks designs, develops, and markets a comprehensive, integrated suite of high performance quality of service networking products for enterprises and communications service providers. Sitara Networks' products address the inherent limitations of Internet Protocol, or IP, in order to optimize overall network performance, ensure the availability of mission critical applications, and ultimately allow service providers to deliver additional, revenue-generating services, on demand, with the level of services their customers require. Sitara Networks is also a leader in the enterprise QoS market by enabling e-business and protecting mission critical applications.

Sitara Networks is headquartered in Waltham, MA and operates subsidiaries in Canada, South America, South Africa, Europe, and Asia. More information about the company can be found on the Web at www.sitaranetworks.com.

About Hamline University

Hamline University is Minnesota's first university, serving a diverse student body of more than 3,300 degree-seeking students and 8,000 professionals in continuing education. Hamline awards bachelor's, master's, doctorate, and professional degrees and has four schools: an undergraduate College of Liberal Arts; School of Law; Graduate School of Education and Graduate School of Public Administration and Management. The university also offers a master's degree in liberal studies and master of fine arts in writing through its Graduate Liberal Studies Program. Hamline University is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

About Data Accessories