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Network General Delivers Simplified Management of Cisco IOS NetFlow Data Driving Higher User Adoption

Open Architecture Facilitates Access to Performance Management Database

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 7, 2007 - Network General ™ Corporation, the leading provider of IT Service Assurance solutions, today announced the integration of Cisco NetFlow data into its network intelligence architecture, networkDNA™, delivering a single source of network truth aggregated from multiple vendor data sources. The company also announced the availability of new application programming interfaces (API) for its NetVigil and Visualizer products, providing open access to critical application and network performance data by extracting network intelligence from the networkDNA performance management database (PMDB).

“Network General is delivering a unique and meaningful capability to integrate NetFlow data with a much broader set of performance related resources to support optimizing and troubleshooting the infrastructure for superior network and application performance,” said Dennis Drogseth, vice president, Enterprise Management Associates.  “Network General’s balanced approach includes a deeply integrated capability for combining NetFlow with packet and probe-based traffic analysis, along with event-based information and SNMP statistics relevant not only to network performance but to systems performance as well.  Network General also offers both synthetic and observed application response information to complement NetFlow’s volume-centric information.”

Unique Approach to Providing Support for Cisco NetFlow
With the addition of NetFlow data into Network General’s PMDB, NetFlow information can be compared with business-level IT service availability and performance using unique performance baselines and trends. This approach not only provides customers with a single workflow for monitoring and managing data, but also allows customers to gain a better understanding of application and network performance interrelationships across various IT infrastructure segments.

Network General’s Network Intelligence Suite delivers a superior reporting and analysis solution that both interprets NetFlow and provides insights into application performance, providing a broad context for isolating and solving performance and capacity-related issues. The complexity of managing varied sources of flow data is reduced as users are able to review historical performance, determine patterns, predict future behavior, and analyze anomalous trends.

Web Services APIs Open Access to Performance Management Database
Development and delivery of web services-based APIs exposes the underlying sources of networkDNA to partners and customers, accelerating their ability to develop custom solutions.  As the core enabling technology for Network General’s Network Intelligence Suite, networkDNA allows customers to access, manage, and share network and application intelligence for real-time IT performance analysis.  This open architecture features a PMDB of real-time IT metrics generated by Sniffer technology platforms, NetFlow, and other data sources, such as IPFIX. 

“Netflow delivers the granular information needed, allowing me to see how various applications impact my network performance as a whole,” said Kevin Watts, manager of voice and data services, University of Alberta.

“By opening up our networkDNA architecture, Network General is delivering on our promise to become the ‘single source of network truth,’” said Ken Boyd, executive vice president of product delivery at Network General.  “Not only do we now collect independent sources of IT performance data, but we also have executed on our plan to allow third party developers to leverage this invaluable data to deliver enhanced value to our customers.”

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