FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2006

Network Instruments, LLC
10701 Red Circle Dr.
Minnetonka, MN 55343 USA

Network Instruments® Experiences 24 Percent Overall Growth in 2005

Major Competitive Wins Help Company Realize its 11th Consecutive Year of Double-Digit Growth

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — January 17, 2006 —Network Instruments, developers of innovative analysis solutions for distributed networks, announced today that total company revenue for 2005 increased by 24 percent over 2004. Contributing factors include substantial competitive wins, new innovative product offerings, and expansion into new markets.

Competitive Wins

Throughout 2005, organizations around the globe were replacing their analysis tools with Network Instruments’ Observer. Network Manager Charles Donais from Nestlé Waters North America recently replaced some of his old analysis tools with remote monitoring appliances and Observer consoles from Network Instruments.

“By switching to Network Instruments we ultimately replaced two different product lines–Sniffer and Visual Networks,” said Donais. “I was impressed with Observer’s robust product functionality, especially the ability to drill down on individual conversations. As an added bonus, we found Network Instruments’ pricing to be more on target with our budget. This allowed us to purchase more units and gain more network visibility than what would have previously been possible—particularly with Sniffer.”  

Other 2005 major customer wins include: 3M, ADC, Alaska Airlines, Andersen Windows, Atlanta Journal Constitution, BAE Systems, CBC Radio, CIT Group, Daimler-Chrysler, Eaton Corporation, Federal Aviation Administration, Fidelity Investments, GE Medical Systems, Lava Trading, Northup Grumman Corporation Marine Systems, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Priority Healthcare Corporation, Raytheon Company, Siemens AG, State of Hawaii, SunGard, Time Warner Cable, Turner Entertainment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, United States Secret Service, Unisys, and the Vodaphone Group.

New Products

Network Instruments released Observer 11 in 2005, providing numerous enhancements, including an enterprise-strength VoIP Expert system.

“This past year, VoIP adoption went from hype to reality,” said Douglas Smith, president and co-founder of Network Instruments. “Observer 11 simplifies VoIP analysis by delivering comprehensive call metrics and aggregate statistics for VoIP traffic in one package–making it the optimal tool for enterprise administrators versus other tools designed solely for specialized telecom engineers.”

Observer 11 features include:

• Enhanced VoIP Expert.  Manage, troubleshoot, and maintain VoIP traffic across the network. Track call quality with over 20 VoIP-specific metrics and speed resolution with over 50 new VoIP-specific Expert events.
• MultiHop Analysis.  Track conversations or transactions through up to 10 segments, hops, or routes to pinpoint delay and determine if problems are caused by the network or an application.
• Stream Reconstruction.  Rebuild web pages (including images), e-mails, instant messages, and phone conversations to help enforce corporate policy, assist law enforcement, and comply with industry regulations.
• Time-Based Navigation Utility.  Analyze capture histories as large as 8 terabytes (TB) down to the nanosecond with the GigaStor’s new time-based interface.
• 64-bit Application Core. As the first enterprise-driven, multi-topology, distributed network analyzer written in 64-bit Windows, Observer greatly improves analysis performance providing the fastest, most accurate, most efficient analysis available. (A 32-bit version is also included.)

Network Instruments also expanded its hardware offering:

• New nTAP™ Product Line.  TAPs ensure monitoring devices are receiving a complete copy of network traffic for accurate analysis. Network Instruments has developed and manufactured its own line of network TAPs (nTAP), and created an e-commerce site (www.networkTAPs.com) to accommodate customers.
• High-Performance Gen2™ Capture Card.  The Gen2 capture card monitors up to eight ports individually or in aggregate, provides visibility into copper or optical links with SFP technology, and permits downloadable firmware upgrades in the field.
• More Compact Gigabit Observer Suite System (GOSS).  The new GOSS offers greater efficiency in travel and shipping with a reduced weight, a more compact design, and the new Gen2 Capture Card.
• High-Capacity GigaStor.  The GigaStor captures up to 8 TB of data at line rate, supports trunking, and processes data at the probe. Combined with the software enhancements added to Observer 11, the new GigaStor can easily analyze and sort through massive amounts of data.

“We have created a new paradigm of troubleshooting with the GigaStor,” said Roman Oliynyk, CEO and co-founder of Network Instruments. “Instead of recreating a problem and attempting to capture it again, the GigaStor allows network professionals to go back in time to when the event occurred to analyze the problem. This dramatically reduces troubleshooting time. As a result, this appliance has been well received by our customers and industry analysts.”

New Markets and Company Expansion

Network Instruments opened new sales offices in Münich, Seattle, and Toronto in 2005 to expand market reach and better serve local partners and end users.

“We now offer more regionalized support to our customers and partners located in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and the Northwest United States through these new offices,” said Smith.

In addition, Network Instruments purchased a new headquarters facility in Minnesota to accommodate company growth and support its new manufacturing and assembly plant, training center, and dedicated hardware laboratories.

“Our new headquarters allows us to accommodate larger training groups, and the added warehouse and manufacturing facilities help us efficiently develop and deliver products to our customers,” said Smith.

Product Pricing (USD)

Although Network Instruments added new enhancements to Observer and released multiple new remote monitoring options, pricing for Observer, Expert Observer and Observer Suite remained unchanged. Observer 11, with over 30 real-time statistics is only $995. Expert Observer 11, with over 20 VoIP-specific metrics, MultiHop Analysis, and Stream Reconstruction, is $2,895. Observer Suite 11, with a SNMP console and Web Reporting, is $3,995. nTAPs start at $295, the GOSS begins at $17,995 for optical SX, and the GigaStor begins at $35,000 for a four-port configuration. A free product evaluation and additional information about Observer and Network Instruments is available at www.networkinstruments.com.

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About Network Instruments
Network Instruments is the industry leading developer of distributed, user-friendly and affordable network management, analysis and troubleshooting solutions. The award-winning Observer family of products combines a comprehensive management and analysis console with high-performance probes and network TAPs to provide integrated monitoring and management for the entire network (LAN, 802.11 a/b/g, gigabit, WAN). All Network Instruments products are designed utilizing a Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture. With NI-DNA, the Observer solution set simplifies network troubleshooting and management, optimizes network and application performance, and scales to meet the needs of any organization. Founded in 1994, Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices in London, Münich, Paris, Toronto, and multiple cities throughout the United States with distributors in over 50 countries. More information about the company, products, innovation, technology, NI-DNA, becoming a partner, and NI University can be found at www.networkinstruments.com.

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