Foundry Networks and Blue Coat Form Alliance to Deliver End-to-End Application Acceleration for Customers Worldwide

Foundry ServerIron Application Delivery Switches and Blue Coat ProxySG Appliances Provide Scalable Application Delivery to Improve User Experience


SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 29, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foundry Networks(r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, and Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:BCSI), the leader in WAN Application Delivery and Secure Web Gateway, today announced that Internet Services Unit (ISU), an Internet service provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has deployed Blue Coat(r) ProxySG(r) appliances and the Foundry(r) ServerIron(r) to provide users with a high-quality experience. The joint solution optimizes ISU's network to accelerate the delivery of requested content to users throughout Saudi Arabia.

"By adding Foundry ServerIron traffic controllers and Blue Coat appliances, we can provide reliable, consistent application delivery, security and an excellent user experience for our customers," said Hani Al-Thubaiti, network operations center manager for Internet Services Unit Saudi Arabia. "As content demand grows with our customer base, this powerful and scalable solution allows us to simply slide in another Blue Coat appliance and configure the ServerIron switch to use the new resource."

For service providers, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances offload processing functions from its servers to speed application delivery and protect the network from potential threats. To optimize network performance, Foundry's ServerIrons load balance traffic across the server farm, increasing application availability and scalability. Deployed in tandem, Foundry's ServerIrons efficiently balance traffic across multiple Blue Coat ProxySG appliances, allowing service providers to scale its network bandwidth up to multiple trunked 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) connections to dynamically increase bandwidth as data traffic increases. To reduce management costs, service providers can add additional ProxySG appliances as they grow, without configuration changes.

To improve the end-user experience by reducing application response times, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances cache content, including video, locally to speed delivery to end-users. Foundry's ServerIron Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) then directs users to the closest location to retrieve the requested content improving efficiency to minimize latency.

"Solving application performance challenges while ensuring Web security and policy control throughout the distributed network is now a requirement for service providers such as ISU and enterprises alike," said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Blue Coat Systems. "The combination of Blue Coat and Foundry appliances provides the scalability, reliability and control that these large organizations require to accelerate the delivery of Web-based and bandwidth-intensive applications."

For enterprises, the combined Blue Coat and Foundry solution accelerates time-sensitive business applications across the network and provides high availability at the application-level, increasing productivity. Blue Coat ProxySG appliances with Foundry ServerIron application delivery switches enable large enterprises to increase the performance and uptime of business-critical applications.

"Our ServerIron application delivery switches extend the power of Blue Coat ProxySG appliances for large-scale, service provider caching, Web security and policy control," said Benjamin Taft, vice president of corporate marketing and alliances for Foundry Networks. "Together Foundry and Blue Coat provide the world's most demanding enterprises and service providers with the advanced application delivery and WAN optimization tools required to manage increasing traffic load and emerging business-critical applications."

To bring this interoperable solution to market, Blue Coat is now a Premier Member of the Foundry IronPowered Technology Alliance, and Foundry has joined the Blue Coat Technology Integration Partner Program. These programs are designed to provide solutions that help service providers and enterprises build a flexible and scalable application infrastructure.

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro and core routers. Foundry's customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynet.com.

The Foundry Networks, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2756

About Blue Coat Systems

Blue Coat secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise. Blue Coat's family of appliances and client-based solutions -- deployed in branch offices, Internet gateways, end points, and data centers -- provide intelligent points of policy-based control enabling IT organizations to optimize security and accelerate performance between users and applications. Blue Coat has installed more than 40,000 appliances worldwide. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

The foregoing may contain "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's current information and beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by management. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements by executives or spokespeople regarding Foundry's positioning and potential plans. The forward-looking statements in this press release are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Furthermore, no statements made by Foundry Networks, Inc. ("Foundry") in this press release, or information contained herein, may be deemed to constitute either an amendment of an existing agreement or an implied new commitment, promise or legal obligation by Foundry to develop or deliver any specific product, feature or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any product, feature, or functionality described herein remains at Foundry's sole discretion.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems' expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems' products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems' business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems' Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2008, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blue Coat, ProxySG and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.


            

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