Informix First to Support Microsoft Transaction Server to Deliver Scalable Transaction Processing to the Desktop; Informix to Support ActiveX and DCOM for Simplified, Secure Transaction Application Development and Deployment; Informix Extends Microsoft's Development Platform To New Applications with INFORMIX- Universal Server

Business Wire, Dec 10, 1996

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1996--Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFMX), the leading provider of innovative database technology, today announced its support for Microsoft Corporation's Transaction Server 1.0, a distributed transaction server, to deliver Informix's scalable transaction processing capabilities to Microsoft(R) desktop applications.

This support expands Informix's recently announced Distributed Enterprise Solution and Universal Web Architecture to applications built using ActiveX(TM) and DCOM, providing the same easy, high-performance database-to-desktop transaction support as with Sun Microsystem's Java.

Additionally, as a result of combining INFORMIX-Universal Server with Transaction Server, developers will be able to extend their Microsoft Windows NT(R)- and Windows(R)-based applications to new data types.

By integrating with Microsoft's Transaction Server, Informix enables customers with Microsoft ActiveX- and OLE-based client/server, intranet and Internet applications to seamlessly exploit all of Informix's high-performance, scalable databases, whether on Windows NT or UNIX.

Because Informix's database servers are standards-based, current Informix customers do not need to make any server-side changes to take advantage of Microsoft's emerging transactional applications.

In addition, customers will be able to extend their transactional applications to incorporate new data types when Transaction Server is deployed with INFORMIX-Universal Server. These new, complex data types include audio/video, images, spatial and text, and "plug into" Informix's high-performance, scalable Universal Server through DataBlade(R) modules.

"Informix understands that corporations need to connect a variety of computing systems, platforms and data sources to effectively use available information," said Brett Bachman, general manager of Enterprise Products at Informix.

"By integrating with Microsoft Transaction Server, customers are assured of our commitment to not only provide the industry's leading database technology, but also as evidence of our leadership to deliver open, best-of-breed solutions to our customers, using Microsoft's emerging standards -- ActiveX and DCOM."

Informix's Integration

To deliver scalable transaction processing to Microsoft desktop applications, Informix will provide integrated client-connectivity components for use with Transaction Server. These components allow any Microsoft distributed, transaction-based client applications to work directly with any Informix database server on either Windows NT or UNIX, across heterogeneous environments.

Informix is using the X/Open-XA standard to interface with Transaction Server. Because all of Informix's database servers, including INFORMIX-Universal Server, support XA transactions, current Informix customers will be able to deploy Microsoft transaction applications against Informix databases with no server-side changes.

Informix's client-connectivity component is scheduled to be available in first quarter 1997 for the following Informix databases: INFORMIX-OnLine Workstation, INFORMIX-OnLine Workgroup Server, INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server(TM), INFORMIX-OnLine Extended Parallel Server and INFORMIX-Universal Server -- all of which are based on industry-leading Dynamic Scalable Architecture(TM) (DSA).

Informix's database products are sold and supported worldwide by Informix.

Complementary Solutions

The Transaction Server combined with Informix's Distributed Enterprise Solution will enable customers to cost-effectively develop, support and manage applications in distributed, heterogeneous database environments.

The Informix Distributed Enterprise Solution is an unequaled set of database capabilities, including replication and systems management tools, to support the information management needs of distributed enterprises from the desktop to the data center.

With this announcement, Informix will additionally expand support for its Universal Web Architecture to applications built using ActiveX and DCOM, providing the same easy, high-performance database- to-desktop transaction support as with Java. INFORMIX-Universal Web Architecture is the first open Web development and deployment environment that allows businesses to build and manage high-performance, dynamic "Intelligent" Web sites, easily.

Both solutions span INFORMIX-Universal Server and Informix's flagship database products. Recently available, INFORMIX-Universal Server combines the power of DSA with the extensibility of DataBlades, enabling customers to quickly develop and deploy next-generation applications that incorporate new, complex data types.

Microsoft Transaction Server

Microsoft Transaction Server 1.0, formerly code named Viper, is a distributed application server designed to simplify the development of transaction-based applications by providing a common API and set of services that takes advantage of Microsoft's Common Object Model (COM) and ActiveX technologies.

This interface insulates the developer from having to deal with issues such as connectivity, directory, process and thread management and security in heterogeneous database environments.