PRESS - INFORMIX SOFTWARE TEAMS WITH PYRAMID TECHNOLOGY AND SIEMENS NIXDORF INFORMATIONSSYSTEME AG TO SUPPORT THE SMART WAREHOUSE

INFORMIX SOFTWARE TEAMS WITH PYRAMID TECHNOLOGY AND SIEMENS NIXDORF INFORMATIONSSYSTEME AG TO SUPPORT THE SMART WAREHOUSE Development Program To Include INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server Tests Data Warehouse System Concepts Prior To Full Investment MENLO PARK, Calif. (September 18, 1995) Informix Software, Inc., Pyramid Technology and SNI today announced Informix's support for the Smart Warehouse, a comprehensive worldwide solutions offering designed by Pyramid and SNI to incorporate hardware and software solutions, and consulting/systems integration to meet the demand for operations-critical data warehousing. Informix will support the Smart Warehouse initiative by participating in Pyramid's Smart Start development program, with INFORMIX(R)-OnLine Dynamic Server(TM), the company's multithreaded parallel database. The Smart Start program is an innovative approach to deploying data warehouses and allows customers to build and test pilot applications before making big ticket hardware and software purchases. Smart Start lowers the risk of entry into data warehousing by allowing customers to determine system functionality and establish potential return on investment prior to full investment. Under the Smart Start program, Informix, Pyramid, SNI, and other Smart Warehouse partners, will provide customers with the elements, such as consulting and business analysis initially needed to develop customized data warehousing solutions. "Informix, Pyramid, and SNI have teamed to provide superior solutions to the open systems marketplace for more than ten years," said Phil White, chairman and CEO at Informix. "The Smart Start development program is a logical extension to our successful partnership that provides our joint customers with a superior low risk data warehouse solution." "Cooperative efforts between Informix, Pyramid and SNI provide our customers with one of the few solutions available designed to take full advantage of very large databases (VLDB) and multi-terabyte data warehouse applications," said John Chen, Pyramid's president and COO. "With Smart Start, Informix, Pyramid, and SNI can deliver a virtually risk free data warehouse solution to our joint customers." OnLine Dynamic Server and Data Warehousing Relational database management is a key component in a data warehouse implementation. In order to maximize the manageability of large volumes of data in a data warehouse, customers must select a relational database that can manage data in parallel. Informix's Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA), the foundation upon which OnLine Dynamic Server is built, provides the internal parallel technology needed for managing large amounts of data in a data warehouse. This core parallel technology includes features such as data partitioning, parallel query, parallel loading and indexing, and dynamic system management - important to data warehousing environments. Smart Start Development Program Smart Start provides customers with a three-phase design and implementation methodology which minimizes their up-front investment and provides clear exit points at the end of each phase. The programs three phases are project definition, pilot, and final system installation. Each phase includes clearly defined deliverables. At the end of the first two phases the customer has the opportunity to evaluate those deliverables and decide whether to proceed to the next phase or end participation in the program. Teaming to Provide Highly Scalable Solutions Informix and Pyramid have participated in joint solutions and development for mission-critical environments since 1987. Pyramids parent company, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI), has had an ongoing relationship with Informix for 12 years. By leveraging this strategic relationship, Informix, Pyramid and SNI deliver business-critical data warehouse solutions across key vertical markets including banking and finance, health care, government, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail. Some of the worlds largest companies rely on the combined strengths of Informix, Pyramid and SNI. Seven of the 12 largest hospitality chains in the world rely on database solutions provided by Informix and Pyramid. In addition, more than 50 percent of all the SNI database customers in Europe use Informix database technology. Today, Informix, Pyramid and SNI worldwide customers such as Red Lion Hotels, US WEST, Choice Hotels, Southwestern Bell, John Hancock Mutual Life, Bellcore, Value Rx, Thisco, German Telecom, Dresdner Bank, BMW, and Telecom Italia run their business-critical applications on Nile Series and RM Series platforms using the Informix database. The three companies are also jointly developing a highly scalable, high performance solution with optimization of the INFORMIX-OnLine Extended Parallel Server 8.0 (OnLine XPS) on the Pyramid Reliant Model 1000. Designed for the most demanding on-line transaction processing (OLTP) and multi-terabyte data warehouse applications, optimization of OnLine XPS for the RM1000 is currently in the advanced stages and is now scheduled to be available to users by mid-1996. About Pyramid Technology Pyramid Technology -- A Siemens Nixdorf Company -- is a leading provider of scalable enterprise servers delivering the industrys most complete range of UNIX' solutions from the desktop to the data center. Pyramid provides premier strategie in 45 countries and more than 120,000 UNIX system installations worldwide. Pyramid and Siemens Nixdorfs combined mid-range systems operations represent over $1.6 billion in sales worldwide and make the combined company one of the largest providers of systems in the mid-range UNIX server market. Additional information is available on Pyramids World Wide Web site at http://www.pyramid.com/. About Informix 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 interfaces, and connectivity software that allows information to be shared transparently from PCs to mainframes within the corporate computing environment. The company's corporate headquarters is in Menlo Park, California. More information about Informix is available via the World Wide Web: http://www.informix.com/. Informix is a registered trademark, OnLine Dynamic Server and NewEra are trademarks of Informix Software, Inc. All other companies mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 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