Netcordia and the California K-12 High Speed Network Team Up to Improve Service Delivery of Internet Resources to the Classroom.

Joint Product and Service Solution Provides Network Analysis to Improve Access to Powerful Network for Educators, Students and Staff across the State

ANNAPOLIS, Md. & EL CENTRO, Calif. -- Netcordia, a leading provider of network analysis solutions, and the California K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN), the administrator of the state's high speed educational network, today announced a partnership to provide educators, students and staff with improved end-to-end access to high-speed networks. K12HSN will provide local network administrators with Netcordia's NetMRI network analysis solution to provide schools, districts and county offices of education in California with opportunities to automate network management.

California K12HSN provides services to 72 K-12 node sites which are extended to 81% (7,646) of the state's schools, 87% (863) of the state's school districts, and 100% (58) of county offices of education in California. Over five million students (80%) benefit from this connectivity.

Service delivery from the state's high-speed network can often be impaired by undetected and often unintended local network configurations. Recent studies have shown that the choking points on network availability are no longer on the national backbone, nor are they at the state networking level - they are most often at the local education loop or individual institution.

To help schools address this condition, K12HSN is deploying NetMRI to help audit local networks, analyze conditions and provide opportunities to automate configuration fixes to proactively address local network issues that can hinder access. As a result, state schools experience improved access to powerful networks, making conditions more ideal for the use of online learning tools, such as distance learning. After the initial audit, schools, districts and county offices of education interested in purchasing NetMRI equipment will be able to do so at discount prices.

"Netcordia and K12HSN are collaborating to provide California's schools with the opportunity to better understand their networks and ensure end-to-end performance based on industry best practices," said Todd Finnell, CEO of the K12HSN. "NetMRI's built-in rules, Network Scorecard and actionable task lists, will assist schools with local network configuration in order to maintain reliable access for teachers and students."

A comprehensive network analysis solution, NetMRI monitors, detects, and reports on network issues before they become problems. NetMRI provides built-in expert rules to comprehensively maintain the health of a network, and delivers critical analysis information in a simple, precise, and efficient manner. This enables K12HSN to quickly and easily view issues, identifying potential problems before they disrupt the network.

"K12HSN's objective of helping to foster better access goes well beyond a management service of the last mile connectivity," said Don Pyle, CEO of Netcordia. "Together, K12HSN and Netcordia offer schools a powerful combination which will significantly cut operational costs and ensure cleaner, clearer network access while presenting a network best practices learning opportunity for students and staff."

About Netcordia

Netcordia offers enterprises, service providers and government agencies simply a better way to manage their networks. Able to deploy in less than 30 minutes, Netcordia's NetMRI provides the continuous analysis, reporting, and troubleshooting capabilities necessary to manage multivendor networks. This automated solution provides visibility into the network to easily and quickly identify and track issues related to compliance, configuration, performance, security, and IP Telephony which can lead to network instability and service interruption.

Netcordia has been recognized as one of the top companies to watch in network management by Network Computing, one of the Fierce15 top emerging companies in IP Telephony by FierceVoIP, and a Red Herring 100 finalist. (www.netcordia.com)

About K-12HSN

The California K-12 High Speed Network program is funded by the California Department of Education to manage the manner in which educators, students and staff across the state access the California Research and Education Network, a reliable high speed network with the capacity to deliver high quality online resources to support teaching and learning and promote academic achievement. (www.k12hsn.org)