PRESS vINFORMIX ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR NEW OPEN ENTERPRISE GATEWAY TO BE BASED ON TECHNOLOGY FROM INFORMATION BUILDERS

INFORMIX ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR NEW OPEN ENTERPRISE GATEWAY TO BE BASED ON TECHNOLOGY FROM INFORMATION BUILDERS Middleware Solution Will Provide Transparent Data Access to More Than 60 Data Sources and 35 Hardware Platforms MENLO PARK, Calif., (July 27, 1994) -- Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leader in parallel processing database technology, today announced its plan to create INFORMIX-Enterprise Gateway, a new product which will provide transparent access to multiple enterprise data sources without having to rewrite applications to interpret and utilize the data. Enterprise Gateway will connect Informix and third-party tools and applications to any data source throughout an enterprise. Informix will license EDA/SQL Release 3 technology, the latest generation of Information Builders, Inc.'s (IBI) middleware technology, as the foundation for creating Enterprise Gateway. The EDA/SQL technology will enable users to access more than 60 different database management systems including IMS, VSAM, CA-IDMS and non-Informix relational databases, and file structures residing on more than 35 hardware platforms and operating systems. Basing Enterprise Gateway on proven technology from IBI will allow users to reach data that resides anywhere in their existing enterprise environment, and immediately incorporate the information into their Informix-based applications. Enterprise Gateway will permit users access to multiple data sources from a single gateway, and to make remote procedure calls to legacy applications residing on the target platform. To implement this middleware solution, Informix customers will place the new Informix gateway with an Informix database and IBI's copy of the EDA/Server product with the target database on the server from which data will be accessed. Informix's and IBI's worldwide sales and support organizations will be working together to provide an appropriate customized solution for each customer. "The majority of today's data resides on legacy systems, typically difficult to access and utilize for new decision support applications. "With Enterprise Gateway, tools such as INFORMIX-NewEra can be used to build applications that easily access legacy data sources and provide a single view of the data," said Tim Shetler, vice president, product management, Informix. "IBI's market-leading middleware technology partnered with Informix's market-leading database technology will provide customers with the most complete data migration and access solution on the market toda." Informix's Continuing Commitment to Enterprise Connectivity The new enterprise gateway will be the latest component in Informix's ongoing commitment to provide open, interoperable, standards-based connectivity products. Some of the recent examples of Informix's commitment are: the addition of ODBC capability to Informix tools and server products; the capability of the INFORMIX-Gateway with DRDA* product to provide distributed joins with its transparent read/write access to DRDA-compliant databases; and the recent broadening of connectivity support to all major client/server platforms including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows NT, Macintosh, Motif, OS2, and UNIX. Informix will be announcing more new products and capabilities for enterprise connectivity including increased systems management functionality for Informix's server products and support for Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). Availability The new enterprise gateway is targeted for completion by the end of 1994. Informix will provide pricing at the time of shipment. 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. ### -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 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