Interop Snapshot: Strong Interest in Virtualization, VoIP, and WAN Optimization -- NetQoS and Network Instruments On-Site Survey Reveals Trends and

LAS VEGAS (Business Wire EON) April 30, 2008 -- -- When asked which emerging technologies present the greatest monitoring challenges, most respondents (38 percent) identified virtualization, while 24 percent were concerned with Unified Communications, followed by MPLS (14 percent).

-- More than 50 percent of respondents indicated that their organizations have deployed some virtualization technologies. This will increase to 79 percent within 12 months and 82 percent in two years. More than 41 percent of organizations do not currently run virtualization, and nine percent were not sure what percentage of their organization's applications, if any, run on virtual machines.

-- VoIP adoption remains strong with 67 percent of organizations having implemented the technology on their network. Most respondents have implemented Cisco VoIP solutions, followed by Avaya and Microsoft. Looking to future VoIP rollouts, seven percent of organizations expect to implement within 12 months, and an additional three percent will wait more than a year.

-- 42 percent have implemented or plan to implement a WAN optimization technology within 12 months, while 44 percent had no plans to implement.

-- When asked about topologies, 69 percent were interested in monitoring LAN, 60 percent in WAN, 56 percent in wireless, 48 percent in gigabit, and 23 percent in 10 Gigabit.

"The job of the network professional is becoming more complex, with increasing responsibility for maintaining optimum application performance while dealing with new technologies such as WAN optimization and virtualization," said Patrick Ancipink, NetQoS director of product marketing. "The organizations that adapt best to the emerging trends and challenges outlined in the survey are those that can understand the before and after impact of change on network and application performance and work well across IT silos for planning and troubleshooting purposes."

"Many of the people we're speaking with today are talking about network-wide rollouts of new applications like VoIP and unified communications," said Charles Thompson, manager of systems engineering for Network Instruments. "Many IT staffs find it challenging to assess how these applications will impact the performance of other business-critical applications. Without visibility into application traffic and performance, it's impossible to set appropriate performance benchmarks and detect problems before their impacts are felt by the user."

To arrange an interview:

-- Charles Thompson and other Network Instruments representatives are available at Interop for interviews at the Network Instruments booth (#527). Interviews can also be arranged through Stephen Brown at 952-905-4077.

-- Patrick Ancipink and other NetQoS representatives are available at Interop for interviews at the NetQoS booth (#1853). Interviews may also be arranged by contacting Chandra Hosek at 512-228-0314.

About NetQoS Inc.

NetQoS provides network performance management software and services that improve application delivery across the world's most complex networks. More than 800 service providers, government agencies, and large enterprises - including half of the Fortune 100 - use the NetQoS Performance Center to monitor application service levels, troubleshoot problems quickly, and plan for change. Representative NetQoS customers include Chevron, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Hilton Hotels, Siemens, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, NASA, and Barclays Global Investors. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NetQoS has R&D centers in Austin and Raleigh, N.C., and regional sales offices in London and Singapore. For more information, visit www.netqos.com or call (877) 835-9575.

NetQoS is a registered trademark of NetQoS Inc. All other trade names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Network Instruments

Network Instruments, a leading provider of innovative analysis solutions helps organizations and enterprises - including 70 of the Global Fortune 100 companies - ensure the delivery of business-critical applications on their networks. The company's monitoring and reporting products provide comprehensive visibility into networks and applications to optimize network performance, speed troubleshooting, and assist long-term capacity planning. Network Instruments solutions provide integrated enterprise-wide reporting and back-in-time investigation capabilities for troubleshooting networks. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries. For more information about the company, products, and technology, please visit www.networkinstruments.com or the company's blog www.networkinstruments.com/blog.