Miercom Announces "Certified Green" Evaluation Program

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - April 29, 2008) - Miercom, a leading network product test center and consultancy, today announced its new "Certified Green" testing program. It also revealed that switches from Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) are the first products to receive the new certification.

Miercom's Certified Green program is based on detailed lab test results and qualitative product assessments, and is designed to provide meaningful, independent guidance to IT organizations looking to improve their own Green IT and business practices. In addition, the program will serve to challenge networking equipment suppliers to design, develop, and deploy products that lower energy costs and consumption, comply with increasingly stringent environmental directives, reduce eWaste, and heighten The Green Effect of the network infrastructure.

Miercom's Green Certification is powered by Ixia, a leading provider of IP performance test systems and service verification platforms for IP-based infrastructure and services. Ixia solutions are designed to fully load and exercise L2-L7 network elements and infrastructures. By emulating real-world data center application traffic, the Ixia test solutions can test multiple application profiles to provide accurate performance per power benchmarks.

Aimed at establishing complete Green analysis of networking products, Miercom's Certified Green program will combine detailed measurement criteria with a holistic view of product impact in enabling the Green IT and business practices of a network operator. Recognizing the complexity and evolving nature of Green pressure points, the program will focus on certifying products based on power efficiency, including power usage and management, heat dissipation, cooling requirements, energy efficiency, and overall product efficiency.

Miercom's "Certified Green" has grown from the recognition by the industry that energy efficiency and power management benefit everyone; that what we do as individuals and businesses will in the long run benefit all. Providing another means to green certification, and one long recognized for the quality of its hands-on testing, represents a substantial benefit.

Cisco Products First to Receive Certification

Miercom is pleased to announce that the Cisco® Catalyst® 3750-E, 3560-E, 3750, 3560, and 2960 Series Switches are the first products to be designated as Certified Green.

Testing and evaluation of the Certified Green Cisco fixed switches revealed:

--  Efficient power draw under various real-world network conditions
--  High-efficiency power supply operation with intelligent power
    management capabilities
--  Superior product efficiency, including VLAN, remote management, and
    other green enabling features.
    

"I would like to congratulate Cisco on being the first company to receive recognition under this new program. Miercom recognizes technologies such as virtualization, energy standby features, and functionality consolidation as being equally important in a product's environmental impact as the power it consumes -- a measurement that seemingly preoccupies other vendors and labs with 'green wash' attempts," said Rob Smithers, CEO of Miercom.

"We congratulate Miercom on taking the initiative to improve the industry's understanding of networking products' Green practices," said John McCool, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Campus Switching Systems Technology Group and a co-chair of the Cisco EcoBoard. "Focusing on the improvement of power efficiency and Green practices in our products is a top priority for Cisco. We are proud that our Catalyst switches are the first to be certified under this important new program. This certification not only rewards our current work, but also serves as further incentive to push forward on innovations aimed at delivering even greater Green returns for our customers."

About Miercom

With hundreds of its product-comparison analyses published over the years in such leading network trade periodicals as Network World, Business Communications Review - NoJitter, Communications News, Xchange, Internet Telephony, and other leading publications, Miercom's reputation as the leading, independent product test center is unquestioned. Founded in 1988, the company has pioneered the comparative assessment of networking hardware and software, having developed methodologies for testing products from enterprise class to carrier grade products. Miercom's private test services include competitive product analyses, as well as individual product evaluations. Miercom features comprehensive certification and test programs for Interoperability (SIP, H323, IPV6, etc.), Security, Reliability, and environmental friendliness: Certified Interoperable™, Certified Reliable™ Certified Secure™ and our newest certification, Certified Green™. Products may also be evaluated under the NetWORKS As Advertised™ program, in which networking-related products must endure a comprehensive, independent assessment of the products' usability and performance.

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Contact Information: Media Contact: Martin Milner Miercom Client Services 609-490-0200 x *8-18 mmilner@miercom.com