(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 22, 2001 ) CDN 2001, NEW YORK, NY, - Keynote (Nasdaq: KEYN), The Internet Performance Authorityâ, today announced Keynote SLA Perspective(tm) the first and only independent service level agreement (SLA) verification solution designed for content delivery networks (CDN), Internet service providers, Web hosting companies and their customers. The new SLA performance measurement service is customized and designed to meet the
exacting measurement requirements CDNs need to better demonstrate and prove the value of their technology to customers and prospects. Keynote SLA Perspective provides the only accurate independent service that verifies a service level agreement has been met.

"Speedera is in the business of providing guaranteed erformance,
availability and quality to our content provider customers -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- backed by SLAs included with every service we sell," said Ben Sharma, Speedera Networks' vice president of operations. "With Keynote's new SLA Perspective services for content delivery and streaming, our customers have the assurance of 3rd party verification that our worldwide network is delivering the goods. This is good for us, and good for our customers."

With Keynote's new SLA Perspective, CDNs can strike mutually beneficial SLAs with their customers with full assurance that the performance enhancement provided by their technology is accurately captured, quantified and reported. Customers can use the service to measure and evaluate CDN solutions, and to assure CDN performance. Keynote SLA Perspective is available in two versions: CDN Edition for Web pages that measures static content and SLA Perspective Streaming Edition for streamed media.

In order to be statistically accurate, measurements designed for
CDNs need to take into account the fact that CDNs deliver content on behalf of Web sites rather than complete Web pages, that individual objects download much faster than entire Web pages, and that content is downloaded from a distributed set of servers. Keynote SLA Perspective(tm) CDN Edition and SLA Perspective Streaming Edition, accurately quantify content delivery performance by addressing the issues specific to content served by CDNs:
For Web page downloads:
- Downloads a single object to accurately represent content served by CDNs;
- Minimizes DNS download times to focus on delivery performance, since the IP address of the content server is pre-cached after the first image;
- Broad geographic and backbone measurements limit the impact of any particular server location on the CDNs' distributed network and most accurately reflects the experience of users around the country;
- More frequent measurements (more than 260 samples per hour) provides more data for more accurate performance calculation;
- A trimmed mean excludes 'outliers' over two seconds, or measurements outside an acceptable range that skew the average, to increase accuracy of content delivery performance.
For streaming content:
- Frequent sampling to measure the components most important to judging the effectiveness of a CDN or hosting provider: startup time,
packet information (late, lost and thinned), availability and rebuffer
(interruption) information.

"By modifying the measurement intervals and trim values SLA
Perspective provides measurement data that accurately reflects the
performance of content delivered by CDNs," said Fritz Mueller, senior
director of product management for Keynote. "Using this data, CDNs can
assure their customers of their performance value and the consistently high quality of service for which they are paying."

Keynote SLA Perspective for Streaming provides the only accurate set of detailed streaming measurements designed for SLA verification by hosting companies, CDNs and their customers. The complexity of streaming requires an easily understood, accurate representative metric by which to judge delivery networks. Keynote SLA Perspective Streaming Edition, based on Keynote's Streaming Perspective service (see release June 12, 2000), plays audio and video for two minutes and takes measurement samples every second in order to provide the most accurate picture of performance. SLA Perspective Streaming Edition reports in an easily digestible format the components most important for judging the effectiveness of a CDN or hosting provider to deliver streaming content, including startup time for the stream; packet information
(late, lost and thinned); availability and error rate; rebuffer
(interruption) information - both the length and number of delays.

"The introduction of SLA Perspective for Streaming for the first time gives content owners the assurance that their streaming investment is protected and streaming providers can verify that SLA goals are being achieved," said Matt Parks, senior product manager for streaming at Keynote.

"Content providers who use CDNs and ISPs to distribute their content now have a tool to accurately gauge the effectiveness of their chosen provider."

The results of SLA Perspective measurements for both Web pages and streamed media can be easily analyzed in MyKeynote or reported in automatic email and pager alarms. These alarms can be set to provide immediate notification if performance degrades below user-defined SLA thresholds of 'acceptable performance.'
A frequently asked questions document about SLA Perspective is available at the following http://www.keynote.com/company/html/sla_perspective_faq.html.

Availability and Pricing

Keynote SLA Perspective(tm) and SLA Perspective Streaming Edition
will be available in April 2001. SLA Perspective CDN Edition is priced at $495 per URL per month. SLA Perspective Streaming Edition ranges from $695 to $3,995 per clip per month depending on measurement interval and size of the stream.

About Keynote

Keynote Systems (Nasdaq "KEYN"), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the worldwide leader in e-commerce benchmarking and Web performance management services that improve the quality of e-business. The company's easy-to-use and cost-effective performance measurement solutions have been implemented by more than 2,900 corporate IT departments, Web hosting companies and Internet service and content delivery providers around the world. Keynote was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 1-650-522-1000.

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The Internet Performance Authority is a registered trademark and Keynote and SLA Perspective are trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

2001 Keynote Systems, Inc.


Regards,
Mary Lindsay
Lindsay PR, for Keynote
408/984-7242
mary@lindsaypr.com


Jason Pfannenstiel
Public Relations Coordinator
Keynote Systems, Inc.
jasonp@keynote.com
(650) 522-1343

Contact Information:
Keynote
Joseph Nchor
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