PRESS RELEASE

nexTier Networks Names Board of Directors, Business Leaders to Guide Next-Generation Semantic Analysis Technology For Security

nexTier Networks’ Founder, Chairman and CTO Tarique Mustafa has assembled a multi-disciplinary team to tackle the challenge of delivering true data leak prevention technologies to the Global 2000. Prior to founding nexTier Networks, Tarique founded Network Utilities, a Silicon Valley startup that built a wireless infrastructure and security platform. Previously, Tarique also served as the CTO of Andes Networks (architects of an SSL Security Appliance that was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2003), and most recently, he was Principal Architect at Nevis Networks where he was responsible for building next generation Security Monitoring and Security Event Correlation technology for IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention) and SSL/IPSec. Tarique has held key technical positions with Symantec Corporation, DHL Airways, MCI WorldCom and EDS Systemhouse. Tarique has a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master’s of Science degree in Engineering & Computer Science from University of Southern California (USC). Tarique was a Rotary International Scholar during his Doctoral work in Computer Science at USC. He has published many original research publications on Data Models, Semantic Data Models and Expert Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Data Security and Software Architecture. He has several technology patents pending in his name.

Joining Tarique on the Board are Bernard Harguindeguy, Matt Ocko, Alex Fries, John Montgomery, and Riz Virk.

Bernard Harguindeguy was most recently the CEO and President of GreenBorder, the first and only security company acquired by Google in May 2007. With more than 25 years of experience in the management and development of computer software and data communications, Bernard brings a wealth of business and technology expertise to nexTier. He was EVP/GM of Critical Path's Identity Management business. As president and CEO of Worldtalk, Mr. Harguindeguy spent three years turning around this publicly traded company into an Internet security software company prior to its acquisition by Tumbleweed Communication. Mr. Harguindeguy received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine and a Masters degree in engineering management from Stanford University.

Matt Ocko is a seasoned venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley. Matt was previously a General Partner of VantagePoint Venture Partners, having built the firm's semiconductor practices that raised over $2 billion for the fund. Previously, Matt was a founding General Partner at SOFTBANK Technology Ventures. Matt also ran the Silicon Valley operations of Helix Investments. Mr. Ocko has invested in and/or served on the boards of a number of successful companies including DataMirror (NASDAQ: DMCX), SupportSoft (NASDAQ: SPRT), CriticalPath (NASDAQ: CPTH), VxTreme (acquired by Microsoft, NASDAQ: MSFT), Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), Alantro (acquired by Texas Instruments, NYSE: TXN), nDSP (acquired by Pixelworks, NASDAQ: PXLW). Matt founded and helped drive Da Vinci Systems Corporation to a top three PC e-mail vendor worldwide by 1990 and was instrumental in building Oracle Corporation's Media Sever Division. More recently, Matt was the co-founder and CTO of Teneros, where he led the development of the company's technology and raised over $45 million in financing with his co-founder from firms including NEA and Goldman Sachs. He holds a Physics degree from Yale University.

Alex Fries brings over 15 years of progressive experience founding, funding, and managing global businesses. Recently, Alex co-founded and led the marketing, business development and strategic partnerships teams for SVOX AG, a venture-backed company based in Switzerland. In 2005, Alex acquired a Gaming Studio in Ireland which he successfully sold to a local Investment firm and served as EVP of sales and marketing for Advance Visual Communications, a Boston venture-backed content company that was sold to US Web. In 2006, he founded Ecosystem Ventures to address investments and support of European technologies and pre-seed-stage startup companies. Alex received a BA in finance and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

Riz Virk was CEO/CTO of CambridgeDocs, a leading technology platform for XML transformation and publishing that was acquired by Document Sciences (NASDAQ:DOCX) in 2007, where Mr. Virk serves as Chief Technologist. Previously, Riz served as CEO and founder of Inner Vision Technologies, an Internet consulting firm specializing in enterprise information portals that was acquired by Unitas Corporation in 2000 where Riz served as CTO. Prior to Inner Vision, Riz was a co-founder of Service Metrics, an Internet company that developed technology to monitor performance of web sites and was purchased by Exodus Communications and served as CEO/co-founder of Brainstorm Technologies. Riz holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.

John Montgomery has been practicing law in Silicon Valley since 1984, counseling public and private companies and venture capital firms. Prior to co-founding M&H, John was the co-chairman of the venture capital practice at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, an early partner of GCA Law Partners, LLP and an associate corporate attorney at Baker & McKenzie and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. John was also an in-house attorney at The Cooper Companies. John has a J.D. from Northwestern College of Law, Lewis & Clark College and B.A. from Stanford University.

For more information about nexTier Networks. Visit www.nextiernetworks.com.

Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, nexTier Networks created a whole new way to secure business information by firewalling data at what the company calls the “semantic layer” – the network communications layer at which the semantic meaning in network data is communicated. Following years of research and development, nexTier delivers breakthrough semantically-aware security algorithms to identify, classify and protect information in real-time across very large volumes of content with unprecedented accuracy. The company was founded by Silicon Valley security veteran Tarique Mustafa and is backed by a team, board and advisors that include many leading authorities from companies like Symantec, McAfee, VeriSign, Cisco, Juniper, GreenBorder, Sygate and Securify.