GOVERNMENT

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Foundry Networks(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY) , a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma selected Foundry to provide critical infrastructure for its new citywide network which connects city agencies serving more than 400,000 citizens, and more than 200 buildings throughout a 400-square mile area. All city departments -- including the City/Country Library System, City/County Health Department, Police and Fire, Public Works and Parks and Recreation -- rely on the new network for day-to-day operations. Tulsa's new network is more powerful, scalable and reliable than the legacy ATM network it replaces and has already delivered numerous benefits to the City and its citizens including lower operations costs and improved reliability and speed for 911 services that depend upon the network. Additionally, the network provides for future growth and expansion, enabling the City to quickly introduce new and more efficient city services. Tulsa installed an end-to-end Foundry solution including BigIron(R) Layer 3 backbone switches, FastIron(R) Enterprise Layer 2/3 switches, as well as the market-leading ServerIron(R) Layer 4-7 switches, to leverage a consistent high-quality product design, non-blocking architecture and consistent user interface. Of particular importance to the Tulsa IT staff is Foundry's ASIC-based sFlow Technology (IETF RFC 3176), which is embedded in Foundry's switch and router products. Foundry's ASIC-based implementation of sFlow provides real-time, 'always-on' wire-speed traffic monitoring with no impact to network performance. "We are particularly impressed with sFlow's wide-ranging traffic monitoring capabilities throughout our Foundry Networks infrastructure. The City of Tulsa has quickly eliminated the need to deploy multiple IDS sensors, and gained full visibility into traffic flows network-wide from edge-to-edge. Today, we wouldn't want to operate our network without sFlow," said Tulsa's Manager of Network Operations, John Robertson. The City combines sFlow and SNORT, a popular open-source Intrusion Detection System (IDS), for continuous monitoring and rapid detection and isolation in the event of network misuse and breaches of security. Tulsa's deployment is the first-known pairing of SNORT IDS technology with sFlow, according to SNORT.org, an independent group that manages and promotes the technology. "Combining these two technologies allows us to monitor over 10,000 ports using one system running SNORT, rather than installing separate IDS sensors in each segment of the network. Eliminating the need to purchase, support, and manage multiple IDS sensors and systems saves work hours, lowers capital costs against the City budget, and further increases our return on investment, allowing my team to serve a huge geographic area with a relatively small staff," Mr. Robertson continued. Designing and installing a new metropolitan area network for a city as wide-ranging as Tulsa was complex. The City's Network Operations team implemented Layer 3 OSPF-transport rings in the backbone, Layer 2 switching at the edge, and Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections throughout the network. The City also deployed Foundry's IronView(R) Network Manager (INM) to facilitate the network-wide management of its citywide network. INM is Foundry's web-based, full-featured management application that provides centralized support for device configuration, accounting, performance monitoring and security management. "We continue to earn the business of cities such as Tulsa because our solutions are purpose-built with the performance, reliability and strong features that metro operators require," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Business Unit at Foundry. "We are strongly committed to helping metro customers solve real-world network problems, ensuring a higher return on their investments."