Customers Benefit from Automated Performance Monitoring and Reporting and Real-Time Troubleshooting Capabilities

Rockville, Md. and Houston, July 25 2002 — Visual Networks® (NASDAQ: VNWK), the leading provider of performance management solutions for wide area networks and services and NextiraOne, a leading provider of network solutions and services incorporating voice, data, and converged technologies, today announced they are working together to offer a new managed service for enterprise customers.

The new service, Network Performance Analysis, is available immediately and is based on Visual Networks’ award-winning Visual UpTime® WAN performance management technology.

Network Performance Analysis enables customers to increase network uptime and reduce network operations costs by providing expert monitoring capabilities with access equipment to fully automate the collection, interpretation and presentation of performance management data. A series of intuitive applications provide real-time and historical troubleshooting tests that can eliminate the need for remote dispatches, and provide performance monitoring, service level validation and performance reporting for private IP, frame relay, ATM, and private line connections-or any combination of these technologies.

"Through our new Network Performance Analysis offering, our enterprise customers can proactively manage and monitor their network performance, troubleshoot network inefficiencies and validate their service-level agreements," said Rick Snyder, senior vice president, professional services for NextiraOne. "Most important, the solution provides a high-level of performance management visibility into mission-critical networks without sacrificing performance or reliability. Customers will also benefit from reduced operational support costs through improved staff productivity, fewer remote dispatches and reduced downtime. This, in addition to our LifeCycle^SM Service offerings, positions NextiraOne as a single resource for their technology-based solutions and support services."

NextiraOne, which is owned by Platinum Equity, one of the largest private equity firms in the United States, has more than 500,000 customers worldwide. The company provides network solutions and services for managing voice, data, and converged communications networks.

"This is a natural partnership for us and we’re excited to work with an industry leader like NextiraOne," said Steve Hindman, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Visual Networks. "Visual UpTime provides in-depth traffic capture and protocol analysis regardless of the WAN access technology utilized. It enables managed service providers, like NextiraOne, to quickly expand their managed services portfolios by creating differentiated and revenue-generating service offerings for frame relay, ATM and IP environments. Visual UpTime has been proven to improve communications and collaboration between service providers and their customers, which ultimately leads to better network performance and increased customer satisfaction overall."

Visual UpTime tracks access line, port and end-to-end circuit statistics, identifies most active users, and measures utilization by protocol and application type. In addition, Visual UpTime validates SLAs and private IP Class of Service (CoS) throughput at the service boundary.

By continuously measuring second-by-second usage levels for every monitored port and virtual circuit, Visual UpTime can automatically make informed recommendations on bandwidth allocation by specific location with its detailed picture of circuit performance. This enables network managers to create overview reports of the most- and least-utilized ports and virtual circuits across the network, then allocate bandwidth as appropriate -- providing sufficient bandwidth to ensure mission-critical applications get through, without over-provisioning bandwidth and exceeding WAN budgets.

Visual Networks has the broadest suite of proven performance management solutions for public and private communications networks and services. In addition to selling its products directly to enterprises and through a worldwide VAR channel, Visual Networks partners with the industry’s largest service providers to create turnkey performance management services for their customers.

To find out how the world’s leading service providers and enterprises are using Visual Networks’ products to increase network reliability and revenues and lower their total cost of ownership, visit www.visualnetworks.com or call 1-800-240-4010 for sales information.

NextiraOne

Headquartered in Houston, TX and Paris, France, NextiraOne is a leading provider of network solutions and services. NextiraOne delivers world-class solutions and LifeCycle^SM services from planning and design, through the implementation, support, and management of voice, data, and converged communications networks. As a global service organization that carries an extensive portfolio of certifications and product expertise, NextiraOne provides best-in-class technologies from leading partners, such as Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, and Alcatel. NextiraOne offers consultation and solutions development ranging from contact center applications to network infrastructure outsourcing. NextiraOne is owned by Platinum Equity (www.peh.com), a global organization specializing in the acquisition and strategic management of mission-critical companies. For more information, please visit www.NextiraOne.com.

Visual Networks
Mara G. Radis
Director, Public Relations
301.296.2741
mradis@visualnetworks.com

Visual Networks
Angela Tandy
Director, Investor Relations
301.296.2728
atandy@visualnetworks.com

For NextiraOne:
Shannon DeYoung
Director, Marketing
713-307-4743
Shannon.DeYoung@NextiraOne.com

Visual Networks and Visual UpTime are registered trademarks of Visual Networks Technologies, Inc. Other slogans or names of actual companies, products or services may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.