PRESS HOME DEPOT MAKES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PURCHASE OF INFORMIX DATABASE PRODUCTS

HOME DEPOT MAKES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PURCHASE OF INFORMIX DATABASE PRODUCTS INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server to Run In Store Processing Systems in 320+ Stores MENLO PARK, Calif., (November 15, 1994) -- Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leader in parallel processing database technology, today announced that Home Depot signed a multimillion dollar deal with Informix for database servers and tools to expand Home Depot's In Store Processing (ISP) systems on a worldwide basis. The deal significantly broadens Home Depot's commitment to Informix products, which currently exists on a national level. All of Home Depot's ISP systems at more than 320 stores worldwide will be deployed using INFORMIX(R)-OnLine Dynamic Server(TM), an implementation of Informix's multithreaded, parallel processing architecture, Dynamic Scalable Architecture(TM), and will run on Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 800 servers. All new development for Home Depot's ISP and host systems will be implemented using Informix technology, including a data warehousing application which will maintain sales, marketing and merchandise information, now housed on a mainframe system. Home Depot will be using INFORMIX-Gateway with DRDA(TM) to access the mainframe data at the company's headquarters. ISP systems running OnLine Dynamic Server enable each Home Depot store to act as a business within itself by performing its own purchasing, receiving, labor scheduling and inventory management. The ISPs also interface with a host system at Home Depot headquarters, which enables applications such as a bridal registry and credit processing to be available at each store. "Informix was the only database vendor to offer the product scalability and the technical direction to effectively meet our IT needs to get us into the next decade," said Ron Griffin, CIO of Home Depot. "Specifically, Informix rearchitected its database down to the core, unlike the other vendors, who added layers to their existing products. Informix demonstrated a level of commitment to do it right, and that's the kind of company we want to do business with." "Today's decision-makers must consider the data requirements of the future when designing their IT systems", said Phil White, chairman and CEO of Informix. "Home Depot selected Informix because it's the only database to demonstrate today the processing power and scalability to fully take advantage of tomorrow's computing architectures." About Informix's Dynamic Scalable Architecture INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server is based upon its next generation, multithreaded parallel processing database architecture, Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA). In order to handle larger databases with improved processing performance, DSA was designed to provide parallel processing as a core capability. This core, internal parallelism enables OnLine Dynamic Server to achieve superior performance by processing database tasks in parallel and maximizing the use of multiprocessor hardware. DSA is designed to exploit all the hardware capabilities available on the open systems market including uniprocessor, symmetric multiprocessor (SMP), loosely coupled clusters and massively parallel processors. About Home Depot Founded in 1978, in Atlanta, Georgia, Home Depot is North America's largest home center retailer currently operating 302 warehouse-style home centers in 26 states and 12 stores in Canada, with gross sales for 1993 in excess of $9.2 billion. Home Depot expects to be operating approximately 824 stores by the end of fiscal 1998. The company employs approximately 63,000 people. 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. ### INFORMIX is a registered trademark, and Dynamic Scalable Architecture, DSA and OnLine Dynamic Server are trademarks of Informix Software, Inc. All other companies mentioned or other names indicated by (R) or (TM) are registered trademarks their respective manufacturer. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 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