Fremont, Calif. and Houston, Tex., September 15, 2003-Inkra Networks today announced that it has entered into a relationship with NextiraOne, LLC, a Platinum Equity company. NextiraOne, a leading solutions provider specializing in the delivery of superior voice, data and converged technologies, will now offer the Inkra 4000 Series and the 1500 Series Virtual Service Switch (VSS), as part of its fully integrated enterprise network solutions. To support the success of the relationship, Inkra will deliver comprehensive training programs for NextiraOne's sales force and engage with NextiraOne in certain sales activities.

"Network complexity is a critical challenge for enterprise customers today. The Inkra solution enables NextiraOne to provide our customers another choice that combines unique virtualized technology with compelling economic value, while helping our customers streamline and automate their enterprise network environments," said NextiraOne President and CEO, Michael Ruley.

The Inkra VSS integrates and virtualizes IP services, including firewall, VPN, intrusion detection, and load balancing, on a secure, centrally-managed switching platform that delivers the functionality of hundreds of separate network devices. Designed for high demand data center environments, the Inkra 4000 provides a highly scalable, centrally managed platform to deliver network services to customers in hosted environments. The Inkra 1500 offers a smaller form factor ideal for delivering services in corporate data centers. Inkra's network virtualization products complement NextiraOne's convergence services, and the resulting technological solutions can result in significant economic value for customers.

Key applications for enterprise customers include:

• Defense in Depth - Implement deep, layered security throughout the network, centralizing and automating the deployment and management of firewalls, VPN, SSL acceleration, and intrusion detection and prevention services.

• Data Center Consolidation - Reduce the complexity of the data center infrastructure by consolidating hundreds of physical appliances into one virtualized system. Streamline provisioning and change management procedures for virtual network services, resulting in reduced management cost, effort, and error.

"Through its relationship with Inkra, NextiraOne adds yet another layer to its competitive position by taking advantage of this significant sales opportunity, while also continuing to fulfill a critical customer need - simplifying and automating network infrastructure," said Sanjay Dhawan, President and CEO for Inkra Networks. "Our relationship with NextiraOne further validates the vital role that Inkra's virtualized switches play in helping to reduce the cost and complexity of enterprise networks."

Globally, Inkra has aligned with industry-leading partners, including Comtec and Global Telecom in Korea, Netsys in Singapore, Hydra in the UK, Data Concept in France, NEC System Integration in Japan and Telindus in Europe to address growing worldwide demand for network virtualization solutions.

About NextiraOne
Headquartered in Houston and Paris, NextiraOne is a client-focused provider of communications solutions and managed services. With nearly $2 billion in revenues and over 9,000 employees worldwide, NextiraOne plans, implements and manages voice, data and converged communications solutions for enterprise and general business clients. NextiraOne offers an extensive portfolio of technical and product expertise, including focus on key client segments, and provides best-in-class technologies from strategic partners. For more information, please visit www.NextiraOne.com. NextiraOne is owned by Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com), a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&O^SM model of value creation.

About Inkra Networks
Inkra Networks' Virtual Service Architecture™ (VSA), including the Virtual Service Switch™ (VSS) and Center Point™ Management Suite, offers the most adaptable and cost-effective network security, business continuity, and performance architecture in the industry. Inkra's VSS product family virtualizes and integrates multiple services-such as firewall, VPN, intrusion detection and prevention, SSL, and load balancing-in multi-gigabit hardware platforms. Together with HardWall™, Inkra's hardware-based virtualization technology, the VSA provides the same performance and integrity as tens to hundreds of separate appliances, at a fraction of the cost. The VSA offers elastic functionality and scalability, enabling corporations to deploy, adapt, and grow network security and infrastructure as needed in real time, with far less budget, time, and effort than using appliances. Inkra Networks is headquartered in Fremont, CA, and funded by Battery Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Storm Ventures, and Greenstone Venture Partners.

Inkra is a registered trademark of Inkra Networks Corporation. Center Point, HardWall, OpenRack, Virtual Rack, Virtual Rack Operating System, Virtual Rack Processor, Virtual Service Architecture, Virtual Service Module, and Virtual Service Switch are trademarks of Inkra Networks Corporation.

Contact:

Melissa Neumann
Inkra Networks
510-249-4831
mneumann@inkra.com

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