Operations Support Systems Initiative to Transform Delivering Next Generation Network (NGN) Services Across Multi-Vendor and Convergent Networks
NICE, FRANCE -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 05/21/07 -- TeleManagement World
(Nice, France) -- Cisco(R) (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Nokia Siemens Networks
entered into an agreement to develop a standards-based
telecommunications network management platform that will help service
providers manage the increasing complexity of their networks and
speed time to market of new services. With the increasing challenges
associated with delivering converged services across multi-vendor
networks and the high cost of custom integration, the jointly
developed Operations Support Systems (OSS) platform will help the
entire service provider community better align network capabilities
and costs with business demands.

The two companies are committed to long-term cooperation, bringing
together Cisco's strong Internet Protocol (IP) competence and Nokia
Siemens Networks' solid end-to-end telecommunications capability, as
well as extensive research and development (R&D) and economic
resources from both companies.

"It is not often that we see such powerful innovation in an area so
desperate for a new approach," said George Nazi, vice president of
Global Engineering, BT. "While often downplayed, the OSS is the
critical engine for our ability to support our network investment in
meeting the demands of consumers and business for new services, new
technologies and new ways of doing business. Providing a common view
of the physical and virtual network across all technologies and
building a foundation for other vendors will complement BT's software
driven network strategy to deliver superior customer experiences."

As part of the agreement, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks will
deliver a solution that will provide a common end-to-end network view
of diverse network elements -- across IP and mobile technologies --
that are automatically discovered and represented as a virtual
network model. Likewise, the solution will provide a complete view of
network resources regardless of platforms, technologies or vendors.
The platform will include basic fault, configuration, performance and
security (FCAPS) management functionality as well as a variety of
common functions, such as data acquisition and network element
mediation, which will be utilized by higher-level OSS applications.

"We are happy to see the equipment suppliers taking a proactive
approach to solving the integration challenges of converged
networks," said Peter Mottishaw, Senior Analyst for OSS Observer.
"This is an important announcement by Cisco and Nokia Siemens
Networks with the potential to significantly reduce OSS integration
and maintenance costs for service providers. Together the two
companies provide about a quarter of network and element management
systems to service providers globally. A common, standards-based EMS
platform that exposes the full capabilities of network elements from
both companies will simplify application development, integration and
maintenance for independent software vendors and systems integrators.
This enables them to focus on the OSS application value."

Nokia Siemens Networks brings to the collaboration its proven
end-to-end telecommunications capability and its out-of-the-box
software product, Open EMS Suite by Nokia, which provides
capabilities of an element management system (EMS) and can be used to
build EMS for various kinds of networks including transport, mobile,
and broadband.

"This collaboration will help our customers and the industry as a
whole to overcome the challenge of how to manage a complex jungle of
network components delivering both business and consumer services at
the same time. There is pressure from both the technical and business
perspective to create a more standardized and open architecture that
will reduce the number of interfaces and the integration and
customization efforts. That is what the joint OSS platform is all
about," says Christian Fredrikson, Head of Operations and Business
Software, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Along with its expertise in IP networking, Cisco also brings its
Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) management solution to the
collaboration. Cisco ANA is already the basis for managing complex
multi-vendor networks as well as providing the base platform for new
management solutions, such as the Cisco Managed Services Solution.
Cisco ANA also provides management support for the Cisco CRS-1
routing platform.

"With the pressure on operators and service providers to reduce costs
and deliver new, converged services more quickly across their
multi-vendor and multi-technology networks, Cisco and Nokia Siemens
Networks share a vision of helping these companies gain better
control over their complex networks," said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice
president of the Network Management Technology Group Cisco. "Running
a service provider network is a huge capital and operating expense.
Our collaboration is focused directly at allowing operators and their
suppliers to focus resources on areas of more differentiating value
in their markets."

The broader intent of the collaboration is to provide a basis for
helping OSS and other independent software vendors produce or extend
their own applications more quickly. Companies such as Amdocs are
demonstrating early support and will be leveraging the future
technology from Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks to extend their own
OSS solutions that assist with issues such as fault management,
network provisioning and inventory control.

"Building linkages between Amdocs' industry-leading OSS applications
and the core network and network devices has always been one of the
most labour intensive parts of our many deployments," said Guy
Dubois, President, Cramer, Amdocs OSS Division. "The collaboration
between Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks promises to dramatically
reduce the effort required and will free resources that can be better
applied to deliver more value to our customers. This collaboration
will allow service providers to deliver the highest quality services
more quickly and at even lower cost."

Cisco and IBM already have a collaborative relationship in the OSS
fault management and service assurance segment. This announcement
extends that relationship to include interoperability with ANA.

"IBM is dedicated to helping service providers and network solution
providers transform their ability to deliver next-generation services
in a converging and highly competitive world," said Alan Ganek, CTO
Tivoli Software and VP Autonomic Computing at IBM Corporation.
"Today's announcement represents a highly differentiated new
technology. IBM is focused on being interoperable with new
technologies that promise to help more easily manage network assets,
reduce complexity and add flexibility for users. IBM is committed to
delivering carrier grade software solutions that meet today's needs
and provide a safe migration path to new technologies like ANA."

Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks invite TeleManagement World
attendees to visit their stands, located at booths #53 (Cisco) and
#94 (Nokia Siemens Networks), to discuss involvement in the OSS
collaboration, and find out about the Nokia NetAct network and
service management system and Cisco ANA interoperability. The
TeleManagement World exhibition takes place in Nice on May 22-24,
2007.