Concord and Newbridge Take Lead in VPN Service
Assurance With OEM Agreement
MARLBORO, Mass. and KANATA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2000--
Agreement to Enable Increased Customer Loyalty
by Extending VPN Services with
Service Quality Management Technology from eHealth
Concord Communications©, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRD - news), the market leader in next-generation management solutions that ensure
effective e-business, and Newbridge Networks (NYSE: NN - news; TSE: NNC - news) today announced an OEM agreement.
Newbridge will embed eHealth, Concord's flagship performance and availability management solution, in its 930 VPN Service Manager
(930 VSM) service management solution for VPNs (virtual private networks). The combined products will offer a complete solution for
managing VPN service quality.
Concord and Newbridge began working together in 1997 to offer a solution for monitoring the performance of high-speed broadband
networks. Under the expanded agreement, Newbridge will embed Concord's eHealth solution, which spans networks, applications and
systems, into its 930 VSM. The 930 VSM is a service management solution that enables service providers to automate provisioning and
dramatically improve service assurance for IP, ATM, frame relay and broadband wireless VPNs. eHealth adds industry-leading expertise
in performance management and analysis, extending the 930 VSM's ability to accurately and easily demonstrate service level
performance. The combination of the 930 VSM and eHealth gives service providers a powerful tool for enhancing customer satisfaction
and loyalty, as well as delivering early warning signs of performance problems in the network.
``The Concord and Newbridge© agreement demonstrates our commitment to enable network providers with best-in-class service
management solutions,'' said Robert Lamb, director, Product Management, Newbridge Service Management Programs. ``In addition to
our existing Web-enabled service fulfillment and assurance capabilities, this OEM agreement enables Newbridge to provide a complete
solution package for VPN services, enhanced by Concord's eHealth performance management component.''
Concord's award-winning eHealth solution set provides the only integrated performance and availability management solution across
applications, systems and networks. Service providers can easily manage growth of new customers, services and technologies with
eHealth's industry-leading scalability and depth of performance analysis. Powered by eHealth, 930 VSM users can now report on critical
metrics such as congestion, volume and utilization, providing an early warning sign of performance problems in the network. Customers
can rapidly react to events that could potentially lead to service disruption and customer dissatisfaction. The result is a powerful
end-to-end performance management solution for today's service providers.
``This agreement offers great opportunities to new and existing Newbridge customers,'' said Dan Phillips, executive vice president and
COO, Concord Communications. ``Through the OEM agreement, customers immediately receive the benefits of eHealth's best-in-class
performance management capabilities, as well as an easy migration path to the full eHealth solution. The combined Newbridge and
Concord integration gives service providers the ability to maximize uptime and performance of the services that support their customers'
critical e-business applications.''
Newbridge will be demonstrating the 930 VPN Service Manager with the eHealth capabilities at NetWorld+Interop at Booth 5187. You
can also see a demo of eHealth at Concord's Booth 7262.
Service providers currently account for a significant percent of Concord's total customer base. A representative sampling of Concord's
customers includes Alcatel, America Online, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, British Telecom, CompuServe, Deutsche Telekom, GTE,
PacBell, SNET, Sprint, Telecom Italia and US West.
About Newbridge Networks
Newbridge Networks designs, manufactures, markets and services wide area networking solutions for service providers in more than 100
countries. On February 23, 2000, Newbridge entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Alcatel, a world leader in end-to-end
voice and data communications solutions systems. Alcatel's leadership in broadband access combined with the Newbridge leadership in
ATM/MPLS/IP switched routing will make it one of the top players in the next generation networking market with complete, end-to-end
communication solutions. Current Newbridge customers include the world's 350 largest telecommunications service providers. The
Company employs more than 6,000 people on six continents. News and information are available at www.newbridge.com.
About Concord Communications
Concord Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCRD - news) is the market leader in next-generation performance and availability
management solutions. With its eHealth solution set, Concord offers the only integrated management solution spanning systems,
applications and networks. Only by successfully managing performance and availability across all of these key areas can organizations
truly ensure effective e-business. This end-to-end view provides the critical insights needed to power day-to-day business and
e-commerce operations for some of today's most successful service providers and corporations worldwide. Concord is headquartered in
Marlboro, Massachusetts. For more information on Concord, call 1-800-851-8725 or visit Concord's World Wide Web site at
concord.com.
The Total View is a trademark, and eHealth are trademarks of Concord Communications. Concord, the Concord logo and Network
Health are registered trademarks of Concord Communications, Inc.
Newbridge and logo are registered trademarks of Newbridge Networks Corporation.
Contact:
Concord Communications
Amy Conefrey, 508/460-4646
aconefrey@concord.com
or
Schwartz Communications
Beth Andrix, Dawn Sullivan, 781/684-0770
concord@schwartz-pr.com
or
Newbridge Networks
Nancy Moloney, 613/599-3600 x3192
nmoloney@newbridge.com |
