MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (November 27, 1995) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today announced the Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent, a new Agent that allows Collabra Share forums to be synchronized directly over a network as well as by electronic mail. The new Replication Agent answers enterprise customers' key replication needs, offering increased reliability and performance, simplified administration and added flexibility in providing both network and e-mail based replication capabilities. In addition, the new Replication Agent offers enhanced management through support for the popular Baranoff Software MailCheck Program.
"The Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent rounds out our enterprise solutions and our customer-driven focus by giving customers the flexibility of both direct and e-mail based replication capabilities," said Bob Lisbonne, director of product marketing at Netscape. "In addition to providing enhanced performance and reliability, the Replication Agent's streamlined administration extends our commitment to provide customers with the lowest administrative overhead."
"Many users have recognized that the day-to-day costs of managing a groupware environment far outweigh the initial cost to acquire groupware technology," said Ian Campbell, research director, Workgroup Application Systems for Framingham, MA-based market research firm International Data Corporation. "Collabra's new Replication Agent addresses one of these costs by easing the replication burden on groupware administrators."
With the Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent, Netscape now offers customers both direct and e-mail based replication -- a key benefit for enterprise customers who need the flexibility to choose the most efficient and least expensive replication transport mode. For example, the one Replication Agent could be setup to synchronize with four other sites via the network and one other site via e-mail every hour. The Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent allows direct replication where a high-speed network is available, or e-mail based replication where LAN connectivity does not exist, over the Internet, or where the LAN connection speed is low.
Key to the new Replication Agent is the ability to keep a group of sites synchronized directly over the network. Through the use of one Agent Manager at the central site, all forums in the group can be replicated in sync, eliminating the need for several Replication Agents at remote sites that need to be configured and maintained. For example, establishing replication between six networked sites can be done in a matter of minutes per forum using Policy-Based Replication, the ability to configure policies for replication for the entire network from any Collabra Share client. Replication with remote sites is also streamlined via file-sharing, eliminating the need for server or agent software running at the remote site. Direct replication dramatically eases set-up and administrative time and simplifies the entire replication process.
The Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent also ensures high performance and reliability for accurate replication. For example, all of the Collabra Share forums in a group are synchronized when a replication session completes, resulting in minimal latency for forum updates. Speed and reliability are also enhanced by removing the dependency on an e-mail network. With direct replication, forums are not susceptible to e-mail problems which can delay or halt forum replication.
Beta tester Del Webb Corporation, one of the top ten publicly traded homebuilders in the country, is the largest developer of active adult communities. Del Webb currently deploys Collabra Share among some 1200 users located at their central site in Phoenix and throughout six states. According to Ross Skinner, manager of information services for Del Webb, "We have experienced significantly increased replication speed and reliability over our wide area network using the new Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent. As a result, the number of our users actively participating in Collabra Share forums across the network has increased by 100%."
Extending Collabra Share's use of the existing e-mail infrastructure, the Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent also adds support for the Baranof Software MailCheck program. MailCheck is one of the leading e-mail monitoring programs and is used extensively by Fortune 500 companies. The 2.1 Replication Agent responds to "polls" sent out by the MailCheck program. This allows e-mail administrators to monitor the status of Replication Agents from a central graphical interface and to be quickly alerted about any problems. The Replication Agent can be configured as to the conditions for which it will alert an administrator.
The Collabra Share 2.1 Replication Agent is scheduled for availability by the end of the year. The price of the Agent remains at $495.00 and upgrades are free for existing Collabra Share customers. For more information on Collabra Share, please consult the Collabra Share World Wide Web page.
Collabra Share is the leading group conferencing product that makes teams more effective, collaboration more affordable and organizational learning automatic. Last month, Netscape began shipping a significant new version of the product, Collabra Share 2.1, less than 90 days after the major new Collabra Share 2.0 release shipped in July. The company also recently announced that Collabra Share Macintosh Edition is now in beta testing and is expected to be available by the end of the year.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software for
linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The
company offers a full line of Netscape Navigator clients, Netscape servers,
development tools and Netscape Internet Applications to create a complete
platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on Nasdaq under
the symbol "NSCP", Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain
View, California.
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