Enterasys Receives High Marks in 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card

ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire - October 28, 2008) - Enterasys Networks Inc., the Secure Networks Company™, today announced that it has been named as a Top Three Finalist in the "Enterprise Networking Infrastructure" category of the 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC). Enterasys finished third overall among top enterprise network infrastructure vendors, while landing at second place in the "Ease of Doing Business" subcategory. The top companies were selected through a survey of vendor partners, tasked with evaluating the innovation, quality, ease of doing business and ROI features of each finalist and their products.

"We have partnered with Enterasys for more than 10 years," said Brandon Ames, CEO of Able Information Technologies, Inc. "Their innovative technology is reliable and the support is the best in the industry -- but the consistent delivery on promises, customer-centric culture, and channel enablement efforts earn them the right to our business every day."

The 2008 VARBusiness ARC offers tremendous insight into vendor partners. It indicates where solution providers are happiest and where they see the need for improvement. More than 5,800 companies participated in the survey. Quality, reliability, compatibility and ease of integration were the most important criteria when evaluating network infrastructure vendors.

In the highly competitive "Enterprise Networking Infrastructure - LAN and Voice" category, Enterasys finished significantly ahead of HP ProCurve and Alcatel-Lucent, and just slightly behind Juniper and Cisco overall. Enterasys matched Cisco and Juniper for pre-sales support and channel communication rankings. In the "Ease of Doing Business" subcategory, Enterasys bested Cisco, and tied with Juniper in the "ROI," and "Richness of features" subcategories.

The Enterasys Secure Advantage Partner Program plays a major role in Enterasys' success in this ranking. Enterasys' worldwide partner program is globally as common and simple as possible, yet reflects regional differences where necessary. The 2008 Enterasys Secure Advantage Partner Program is designed to nurture profitable and loyal partnerships with practical, achievable revenue and certification objectives to enable value-added resellers to grow their business by focusing on three key initiatives:

--  Industry-leading profitability through deal-registration margin
    enhancements
--  Certification training and demonstration kits for sales cycle
    enablement and acceleration
--  Integrated go-to-market demand generation in alignment with the
    Enterasys field sales organization
    

To learn more about the Enterasys Secure Advantage Partner Program please visit our website or contact us at partners@enterasys.com.

About Enterasys Networks

Enterasys is part of a joint venture with Siemens Enterprise Communications led by The Gores Group, LLC. Enterasys delivers Secure Networks™ that ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of IT services and the business users that rely on them -- without sacrificing performance. Thousands of enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions in more than 70 countries worldwide rely on our convergence, compliance and connectivity solutions to deliver business-oriented, identity-based visibility and control of individual user and application priority and security. The company's culture is centered on the principle, "There is nothing more important than our customers." Enterasys' standards-based, open-architecture approach to network security offers a long technology lifecycle and significant operational and business benefits, while reducing total cost of ownership. Information about Enterasys' award winning, policy-enabled switches, routers, wireless products, security software and services is available at www.enterasys.com.

About The Gores Group

The Gores Group, LLC, founded in 1987, is a private equity firm focused on acquiring controlling interests in mature and growing businesses which can benefit from the firm's operating experience and flexible capital base. The firm combines the operational expertise and detailed due diligence capabilities of a strategic buyer with the seasoned M&A team of a traditional financial buyer.

The Gores Group maintains offices in Los Angeles, Boulder and London. For more information, please visit www.gores.com.

About Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC

Tennenbaum Capital Partners is a Santa Monica, California-based private investment firm managing over $7 billion in committed capital in private funds. The firm's investment strategy is grounded in a long-term, value approach, and it assists -- both financially and operationally -- transitional middle market companies in such industries as technology, healthcare, energy, aerospace, business services, retail and general manufacturing. Tennenbaum's core strengths include in-depth knowledge of equity and debt financing vehicles in the public and private markets, as well as a thorough understanding of special situations. For more information, please visit www.tennenbaumcapital.com.

Contact Information: Contact: Trent Waterhouse Enterasys Networks +1 978 684 1506 trent@enterasys.com Michelle Barry BridgeView Marketing +1 603 809 2748 michelle@bridgeviewmarketing.com