Informix Equips Windows NT Developers to Rapidly Build Powerful Enterprise Applications

Developers Receive Five Ready-to-Use Application Development Tools with Informix Partner Companion CD

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1997--Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leading provider of innovative database technology, today announced shipment of the Informix Partner Companion CD, a compact disk containing trial versions of ready-to-use enterprise development, maintenance and reporting tools from five industry-leading partners.

Now shipping, the Informix Partner Companion CD is available at no extra charge with Informix high-performance Windows NT database servers. With the shipment of the Partner Companion CD, Informix is providing its NT customers with a simple, ready-to-use means for leveraging the power of Informix's database technology to deliver business-critical information to any desktop environment. Customers can address business information needs quickly and realize returns on development efforts more rapidly.

The Informix Partner Companion CD gives Windows NT database customers a variety of tools in an all-in-one kit to speed development and ease management of client/server and Web applications. The Informix Partner Companion CD, which is available to current and future Informix customers, includes the following enterprise application tools -- Build-IT from Wallop Software; Crystal Info from Seagate Software; NetObjects Fusion; HAHTsite 2.0 from HAHT Software; and Sapphire/WEB from Bluestone. The tools enable developers to meet a wide range of business needs from Web development to query and reporting.

"The combination of powerful Informix NT database technology and leading partner tools enables companies to quickly and cost- effectively respond to evolving information demands," said Brett Bachman, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Products at Informix. "With the Informix Partner Companion CD, Informix has simplified the steps empowering developers rapidly create business-based applications and provide fast return on development investment."

Informix Companion CD Partner Tools

Informix has brought together five ready-to-use tools to assist developers with the demands of building and managing today's client/server and Web enterprise applications. These tools leverage the high performance of Informix's NT database servers -- INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server, INFORMIX-OnLine Workgroup Server and INFORMIX-OnLine Workstation.

Build-IT from Wallop Software

While most Web authoring tools are focused on individual developers building single application components (such as HTML pages, Java applets, ActiveX controls, perl scripts, GIF images or database forms), Wallop Build-IT allows teams of developers and content creators to work collaboratively to assemble, deploy and maintain them. Wallop Build-IT enables individual developers to use their authoring tools of choice to create application components while simultaneously working with team members to assemble the massive set of resulting components into reliable Web applications.

Crystal Info from Seagate Software

Seagate Software's Crystal Info is an enterprise analysis and reporting system that provides a comprehensive framework for data access analysis, and delivery that meets the needs of multiple users. It is designed for IT professionals who fulfill user requests for database or data warehouse information and want to implement one manageable environment that satisfies a variety of reporting and analysis needs. The system offers both innovative technology as well as high performance for a winning combination.

NetObjects Fusion

NetObjects Fusion is a site-building product that gives users unprecedented site-wide visual control over the design and flexibility of the entire Web site. NetObjects Fusion combines design navigation and linking, database publishing and advanced scripting capabilities to reduce the time, cost and tedium of creating professional quality Web sites. With NetObjects Fusion Web developers and designers can now build integrated Web sites and applications in a fraction of the time required by page-oriented, text-based tools.

HAHTsite 2.0 from HAHT Software

HAHTsite is an award-winning Internet application development system. The powerful environment contains hundreds of features for creating state-of-the art Web applications including WYSIWYG HTML content creation, business logic development, data access, automated deployment and life-cycle management. HAHTsite's integrated, project-oriented approach allows developers to rapidly and easily build and manage all the elements of a Web application -- static and dynamic HTML pages, code objects, images, site definitions, data sources and more.

Sapphire/WEB from Bluestone

For Web developers, Sapphire/WEB is the Web- and Java- to-database application development tool that makes it easy to create high-performance Internet/intranet applications; Sapphire/WEB offers Java client and server-side business logic in an open approach, giving you the choice of Java or ActiveX and the security and scalability to meet the most demanding tasks.

About Informix's Integrated NT Solutions

Informix provides customers with a wide range of scalable, easy-to-use NT solutions on which to develop and deploy NT and heterogeneous applications -- decision support, distributed OLTP and workgroup, and Internet/intranet. These solutions leverage the power of Informix's Dynamic Scalable Architecture, the basis of all of Informix's high-performance, scalable database servers.

About Informix

Informix Software, based in Menlo Park, Calif., provides innovative database technology that enables the world's leading corporations to manage and grow their businesses. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments, ranging from workgroups to very large OLTP and data warehouse applications. Informix's database servers, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of many leading-edge information technology solution areas.

More information about Informix is available via the World Wide Web at http://www.informix.com . -0-

Note To Editors: The following are worldwide trademarks of Informix Software, Inc. or its affiliates, registered in the United States of America, as indicated by (R), and numerous other countries worldwide: INFORMIX(R), Dynamic Scalable Architecture(R) and OnLine Dynamic Server(TM). All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.