SAN MATEO, CALIF., — October 30, 2007 — Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), the global leader in on-demand mobile and Internet test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience, today announced major upgrades to the company’s two flagship Web site performance test and measurement product offerings – Transaction Perspective® 8.0 and Application Perspective 5.0. The enhanced versions include the Keynote Internet Testing Environment (KITE), a new desktop-based test and measurement environment that enables developers and testing professionals, from their own desktop, to test and measure the end user experience of next generation Web applications that include AJAX and asynchronously downloaded content with point and click ease (see separate press release issued today about KITE). All Web transactions recorded using KITE can be deployed on Transaction Perspective and Application Perspective measurement computers located throughout Keynote’s global test & measurement network – the world’s largest.
“In today’s increasingly complex Web environment, companies are recognizing both the value and need for consistent Web monitoring and testing tools that are as advanced as the technologies they test,” said Lisa Erickson-Harris, research director, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). “As companies grow increasingly dependent on their online presence, a single testing and measuring platform that allows developers to instantly test and measure the end user experience of Web 2.0 applications is a significant advance that supports today’s demanding and complex environment.”
Transaction Perspective 8.0 Upgrades to IE7 and Leverages Keynote’s New Internet Testing Environment(KITE), for Most Accurate Monitoring of End-user Performance
Transaction Perspective 8.0, based on Keynote’s True Experience™ technology, is the most accurate Web site performance measurement product on the market and the only one that now utilizes the most recent version of Internet Explorer (IE7) as the playback engine to measure and benchmark the end-to-end performance and availability of Web 2.0 applications and rich Internet applications (RIAs).
The latest version of Transaction Perspective 8.0 will also take advantage of Keynote’s new Internet Testing Environment (KITE), the most advanced desktop-based console using IE7 as the playback engine. KITE is designed to bridge the gap between developers and Web operations teams by embedding within the environment a version of the Transaction Perspective 8.0 and Application Perspective 5.0 measurement software; the very same software that drives Keynote’s globally distributed network of measurement computers.
KITE provides Web application developers, for the first time ever, with point and click access to a consistent testing and measurement platform for the entire application lifecycle using IE7. It is the ideal workbench environment for Web application testing and development because it enables Web developers to execute rapid performance analysis and validation on their desktop, and fix application code before sending it to the Web operations team.
“An actual view into what your customer is experiencing when interacting with a Web site is indispensable – and Web 2.0 technologies make getting that view more difficult,” explained Vik Chaudhary, Keynote’s vice president of product management and corporate development. “By upgrading to IE7 and building KITE, a complete Internet testing environment that captures more site elements, we’re giving customers unparalleled accuracy and visibility into the real user experience. And with the ability to test Web applications instantly right from the desktop, we’re helping Web development teams eliminate the needless hours spent fixing code that was already sent into production.”
Application Perspective 5.0 Offers Multi-Browser Support and Extends Diagnostic Capabilities
Application Perspective 5.0 is a software-as-a-service and root cause diagnostics product for online applications and ideal for companies requiring high-frequency operational monitoring, rather than the high-fidelity user-representation of Keynote’s Transaction Perspective 8.0 service. Application Perspective 5.0 will also take advantage of the new KITE console, and offer customers advanced emulated multi-browser support (e.g. Firefox, Safari, Camino, Opera) by embedding within the console a real Firefox JavaScript engine to dramatically improve the ability to download and execute complex JavaScript. Companies can now precisely measure response times and availability issues of more complex Web sites by interpreting and executing more individual JavaScript elements and enhanced parsing of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Companies can also now measure their performance across emulated browsers allowing them to obtain a more accurate and actual representation of the experience of end users accessing their Web site. Application Perspective 5.0 also includes HTML and header capture, which assists the user with a visual diagnosis in the event of an error.
MyKeynote Web Portal Enhancements
Keynote’s data visualization Web portal, MyKeynote, brings to life the data that is collected from the largest on-demand test & measurement network in the world. Through visual enhancements, the MyKeynote portal offers customers the ability to detect, diagnose, and resolve issues with increased control, speed and flexibility. Visual enhancements include RSS feeds, histograms to more easily organize Web pages into performance buckets, and the ability to trend multiple Web transactions and multiple Web page components on the same graph.
Billing and Flexible Agent Provisioning Enhancements
With the enhancement of the Keynote Service Center (KSC), usage tracking for the entire company will allow both Transaction Perspective 8.0 and Application Perspective 5.0 customers to have 24/7 access to view their account online, track their usage real-time, and project future spending. Additionally, new flexible agent provisioning will now allow users to easily modify existing – or create new – agent groups, giving the customer increased control and flexibility.
The Right Solution At the Right Price
Whether a customer is looking for high accuracy for competitive Web site benchmarking or high frequency for operational monitoring, Keynote offers a product/solution at the right price for all the applications a company needs to monitor, from HTML and JavaScript-based Web applications, to highly interactive Web 2.0 applications that use Dynamic HTML, complex JavaScript, AJAX, or Flash. Pricing begins at $100 per page per month for monitoring site performance from 10 U.S. locations for Application Perspective, and $250 per page per month for Transaction Perspective. Pricing options for measuring over dial-up, broadband and 3G connections are also available. KITE will be available for free download to current Keynote customers.
Availability
Enhancements to MyKeynote and the Keynote Service Center (KSC) will be available in early November 2007; KITE and all other enhancements to Application Perspective 5.0 and Transaction Perspective 8.0 will be available in January 2008. For more information about KITE and Keynote’s Web performance test and measurement solutions, please visit www.keynote.com/web_performance/overview.html.
To speak with a keynote sales representative, call 1-800-KEYNOTE (539-6683), or email sales@keynote.com.
About Keynote
Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global leader in test & measurement solutions that improve mobile communications and online business performance. As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a decade, we have been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that allow companies to understand and improve their customer’s online and mobile experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition, our industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a wide range of industries.
Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™, Keynote has a market-leading infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 geographic locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Our on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.
We help over 2,600 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Our customers represent top mobile and Internet companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, ESPN Mobile, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at (650) 403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks and The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority is a trademark of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2007 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz, Keynote Systems, Inc. (650) 403-3305, dberkowitz@keynote.com
Susan Vander May, Citigate Cunningham, (415) 618-8721, svandermay@citigatecunningham.com