PRESS VERSANT TO PROVIDE REPOSITORY FOR INFORMIX-NEWERA DEVELOPMENT TOOL

VERSANT TO PROVIDE REPOSITORY FOR INFORMIX-NEWERA DEVELOPMENT TOOL VERSANT ODBMS Selected to Provide Distributed Object Repository for Team Development Boston, MA (March 21, 1995) -- Versant Object Technology Corporation (Versant), the leading provider of object database management systems (ODBMS), announced that it has been selected by Informix Software, Inc., to deliver the VERSANT ODBMS for their INFORMIX(R)-NewEra(TM) object-oriented development environment. The VERSANT ODBMS will serve as a distributed object repository to be embedded within NewEra, allowing teams of Informix developers to work collaboratively and take advantage of object reuse. "INFORMIX-NewEra represents the leading edge for scalable second-generation database development tools," said Phil White, president and CEO of Informix. "We are looking to Versant to provide our NewEra customers with the object repository critical to collaborative development. Versant clearly has the best ODBMS technology and vision for meeting advanced data management requirements. We are confident that our partnership will generate great benefits into the future." To elaborate, Geoff Roach, director of tools marketing for Informix said, "for NewEra repository, we needed an object database that could handle the demands of a distributed, enterprise-level development tool and could scale from small workgroups to the enterprise. VERSANT has more features needed for NewEra than any other ODBMS on the market and is the only ODBMS that meets Informix's strict performance requirements." Informix evaluated all of the major object databases for this project and selected VERSANT. The major reasons given for the decision include: -strong heterogeneous platform support; -good distributed database support, including support for long transactions and personal databases, which allows developers to disconnect from a central database and later reconnect and update the repository; -excellent cache management on both the client and server platforms, providing the fastest performance; -server-based query support; and -scalability, from small workgroups up through the enterprise. "The Informix decision to partner with Versant is perhaps the most important affirmation of our technology to date," said David Banks, president and CEO of Versant. "When database people evaluate and select object databases, they choose VERSANT. We are excited to see another industry leader acknowledge the unique benefits that VERSANT provides." The VERSANT ODBMS is the leading object database management system for network management-style applications. Where a RDBMS is particularly well suited for tabular data, an ODBMS has outstanding benefit in applications with complex and graph-structured data. Examples include SONET network management systems and operations support systems in telecommunications, SCADA systems in utilities, workflow and business process reengineering, and CASE repositories. Moreover, by eliminating mapping code between object languages and relational tables, VERSANT offers significant cost and productivity benefits for organizations adopting Smalltalk and C++ for development purposes. The release of INFORMIX-NewEra with the VERSANT repository is now scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter, 1995. About INFORMIX-NewEra INFORMIX-NewEra is Informix's new object-oriented client/server application development environment for enterprise computing. The product features a powerful and flexible database application language, productive visual programming tools, support for team-oriented development, reusable class libraries, and flexible application deployment, all within a client/server-ready package that supports open connectivity to Informix and non-Informix relational databases. Today, a wide range of customers are using NewEra to create graphical applications for enterprise-wide deployment. Some of these customers include: Kuwait Petroleum, Swedish Military Draft Board, Cray Systems, Motorola, US Navy, Computer 2000 in Spain, Utell in the UK, and strategic Informix Value-Added Partners, such as Concepts Dynamic, Inc., TECSYS, Inc., and Relevant Business Systems, Inc. Informix Software is the leading supplier of high performance, parallel processing database technology for open systems. The company's database servers are the number one choice of computer hardware manufacturers for publishing Transaction Processing Council (TPC) benchmarks for UNIX-based systems. Informix products also include application development tools for creating client/server production applications, decision support systems, and ad-hoc query interfing provider of object database management systems for multi-user, distributed environments. Versant offers a complete product line including the VERSANT ODBMS, the VERSANT Fault Tolerant Server, programming language interfaces to both C++ and Smalltalk, SQL-based legacy data integration, and a family of customer support services. Versant also provides VERSANT Argos, a model-driven, Smalltalk-based application development environment. Versant customers include Alcatel, Ameritech, British Telecom, Fujitsu Network Systems, GTE, Informix, MCI, Panasonic, Scotiabank, Siemens, Sprint, Telecom Australia, and many other leading organizations worldwide. # # # Informix is a registered trademark and NewEra is a trademark of Informix Software, Inc. Versant and VERSANT Argos are trademarks of Versant Object Technology Corporation. All other company names and product names are trade marks of the individual companies. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% William Daul Advanced Support INFORMIX SOFTWARE INC. 4100 Bohannon Dr. (415) 926-6488 - wk Menlo Park, CA. 94025 uunet!infmx!billd or billd@informix.com