Arbor Software and Sun Microsystems Demonstrate the Essbase Web Gateway Running on Sun Ultra Server at Dimensions '96; Essbase Web Gateway Support for Solaris and UltraSparc Dramatically Increases Scalability and Performance of Web-Enabled OLAP Applications

Business Wire, Oct 21, 1996

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1996--Arbor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: ARSW), a leading provider of client/server software for business planning, analysis and management reporting, today announced that it will support the Essbase Web Gateway for Sun Microsystems' Ultra Enterprise Server Product Line.

The Essbase Web Gateway enables scalable, high-speed, interactive, read and write access to the Essbase OLAP (on-line analytical processing) server over the World Wide Web, and is the first and only product available that delivers comprehensive OLAP functionality using standard Web browsers and Web servers.

Sun Microsystems and Arbor Software will demonstrate Web-enabled OLAP applications running on a Sun Ultra Server at Arbor's international users conference, Dimensions `96, in Santa Clara, Calif. The demonstrations feature Essbase 4.0.2, Arbor's leading multidimensional database server, Netscape Enterprise Server, and a pre-release version of Essbase Web Gateway running on a Sun Ultra 1 Server with the Solaris 2.5 operating system.

The Essbase Web Gateway is used to develop and to deploy intranet and Internet based Web-enabled OLAP applications such as ad-hoc analysis, management reporting, enterprise information systems, budgeting, and sales forecasting. The Essbase Web Gateway allows corporations to deliver OLAP applications directly from operational systems, or within an overall data warehousing architecture. Standard Web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer can be used to access OLAP applications developed using the Essbase Web Gateway.

"Major corporations are using the Essbase Web Gateway today to develop management-critical business planning and analysis applications," said Jim Dorrian, president and CEO of Arbor Software. "Sun's Ultra Server coupled with Essbase and the Essbase Web Gateway provide a very high performance, scalable platform for delivering Web-enabled OLAP applications to hundreds or thousands of users over corporate intranets or the Internet."

"The Essbase Web Gateway is an exciting product that exemplifies Sun's vision of network-centric computing," said Doug Kaewert, director of market development, Sun Microsystems Computer Company. "Sun's Ultra Enterprise servers provide unsurpassed performance, scalability, and reliability for deploying Web-enabled OLAP applications developed with Essbase and the Essbase Web Gateway. In addition, Sun is using Essbase and the Essbase Web Gateway on Ultrasparc to deliver information throughout our organization."

Availability

The Essbase Web Gateway will support the Sun Solaris Operating System Versions 2.4 and 2.5 running on Sparc and UltraSparc-based servers. The Essbase Web Gateway is priced at $10,000 per Essbase server.

A live on-line demonstration of the Essbase Web Gateway is available on the World Wide Web at http://webgate.arborsoft.com. The demonstration allows users to interact with the only Web-enabled OLAP product that delivers all essential OLAP features including drill down/up/across, pivot, and slice and dice and provides robust multi-user update capabilities. The demonstration site features live, Web-enabled OLAP applications including an Enterprise Information System, management reporting, ad-hoc OLAP analysis and a budgeting application with JavaScript-based data validation.

Essbase is a multidimensional database optimized for business planning, analysis and management reporting applications such as profitability analysis, budgeting, forecasting, planning, financial consolidations, sales analysis and EIS. Based upon a true, client/server architecture, Essbase supports multi-user read and write access, large-scale data capacity, robust analytical calculations, flexible data navigation and consistent, rapid response times. The Essbase server's open architecture supports direct data access using standard spreadsheets, leading third-party query, reporting and EIS tools and Web browsers.

Essbase scales from a single-user version to an enterprise OLAP solution serving thousands of users with databases that are hundreds of gigabytes in size. Essbase enables corporations to deliver OLAP applications directly from operational systems, or as a data mart within an overall data warehousing architecture. Essbase operates on Windows NT, OS/2, UNIX and AS/400 servers across all major networks connected to Windows, Macintosh and UNIX clients.

About Sun Microsystems

With annual revenues exceeding $7 billion, Sun Microsystems, Inc. provides products and services that enable customers to build and maintain open network computing environments. Widely recognized as a proponent of open standards, the company is involved in the design, manufacture and sale of products, technologies and services for commercial and technical computing. Sun's SPARC workstations, multiprocessing servers, SPARC microprocessors, Solaris operating software and ISO-certified service organization each rank No. 1 in the UNIX industry. Java, Sun platform independent programming language, provides a comprehensive solution to the challenge of programming for complex networks, including the Internet. Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.