Press: Informix and Data General Announce Data Warehousing Alliance

INFORMIX AND DATA GENERAL FORM DATA WAREHOUSING ALLIANCE Menlo Park, Calif., (December 12, 1995) -- Informix Software (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leader in parallel processing technology, and Data General, a leading supplier of open client/server systems, today announced an alliance to provide best-in-class, client/server-based data warehousing solutions. The Informix/Data General team offers a unique combination of superior technology and alliances that provide an open environment for customers to build powerful customized data warehouses. The companies also announced that the new INFORMIX-OnLine Extended Parallel Server 8.0 (OnLine XPS) high performance, scalable database server software is being ported to Data General's recently announced family of Intel-based AViiON systems through a joint effort by the two companies. OnLine XPS is a parallel database product that has been optimized to run in clustered environments of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems, the same operating environment that Data General has traditionally excelled at creating with its implementation of UNIX, DG/UX, and AViiON hardware platforms. OnLine XPS has been designed to support very large database (VLDB) requirements with advanced high availability and systems management features. As part of the initiative, Informix's recently acquired MetaCube family of decision support software will also be ported to Data General's AViiON platform. With MetaCube, a large, complex database can be broken down to yield data relevant to a given query in the desired format through an easily understood graphical user interface. MetaCube tracks usage characteristics and provides agents that automatically pre-summarize and re-use frequently requested data on the server. MetaCube also provides for either real-time or scheduled queries running on either the client or the server, allowing a solution to be optimized for large-scale systems. The current Data General/Informix solution incorporates Informix's high-performance, parallel processing database server, INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server, on Data General's AViiON hardware platforms and industry-leading, commercially robust DG/UX operating system. The Informix/Data General relationship has already resulted in the implementation of data warehouses at customers such as Bloomberg Business Services. "The Informix/Data General team offers customers an RDBMS with outstanding scalability and performance, a hardware platform based on industry-standard Intel processors, and a multitude of established partners to enable customers to work with their preferred vendors," said Phil White, chairman and CEO of Informix Software. "Our customers can attest that our competitors either don't provide the necessary scalability or lack the open connectivity to implement a data warehouse cost-effectively and successfully." Relational Database Technology -- Informix provides the only core parallel technology that features data partitioning, parallel query, parallel loading and indexing, and dynamic system management -- all critical to a data warehouse environment. Open Systems Platform -- Data General is acknowledged by industry analysts as having a market-leading commercial implementation of UNIX, DG/UX. Data General's new Intel-based AViiON systems offer customers outstanding price/performance, scalability and availability along with a comprehensive offering of third-party commercial software for decision-support and data warehousing applications. Data Access Tools -- Effective data access and application development tools for decision support are necessary to provide data warehouse interfaces and applications. Informix and Data General work with many key vendors in this area. Data General Data General is a worldwide open systems computing company that specializes in providing servers and related storage systems, software, and services. The company, with headquarters in Westboro, Massachusetts, reported revenues of $1.16 billion during fiscal 1995. Additional information on the company, its products, and services is available on the Internet at http://www.dg.com or gopher.dg.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. ### --