Novell and Talarian Announce Strategic Alliance to Enhance Software Infrastructure for the Enterprise and Internet

Business Wire, Jan 20, 2000

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2000

Novell(R), Inc. and Talarian(R) Corporation today announced a technology and marketing alliance in which the companies will work together to embed Talarian's real-time infrastructure software in Novell products and make it available to the worldwide community of Novell developers and users. The alliance combines Novell's strengths in directory technology with Talarian's leadership in real-time middleware to provide developers and business users with an enhanced software infrastructure for applications spanning the enterprise and the Internet.

With Talarian's advanced middleware technology, developers can efficiently create distributed applications in which information moves in real-time across business networks and the Internet in an event-driven manner. For example, selected information such as a stock quote or news bulletin might be pushed out over the Internet in response to a user request. These &uot;event system&uot; capabilities will speed development and deployment of enterprise and Internet applications linked to Novell Directory Services (NDS), the NetWare Net Services platform, and other leading Novell products.

Toward these goals, Novell and Talarian are working together in several areas. The two companies will port Talarian technology to Novell's NetWare platform; embed Talarian's real-time infrastructure software into Novell Net Services products; and make it available to the Novell developer community. The two companies expect to make announcements in the near future about specific plans and timing for product roll-out.

&uot;This alliance brings together two leaders in Net Services and infrastructure software used to create and support eBusiness applications,&uot; said Carl Ledbetter, Novell senior vice president for business and corporate development . &uot;Talarian's advanced middleware technology will bring new developer and application capabilities to Novell's Net Services platform, accelerating the development of directory-enabled solutions used for messaging, finance, Ecommerce and many other areas of eBusiness.&uot;

To Talarian, whose high-end, real-time infrastructure software, SmartSockets(R), is now the most widely-deployed middleware in the world and is quickly gaining acceptance by Fortune 500 companies worldwide, the partnership with Novell enhances their position in the marketplace and opens new opportunities within the development community.

&uot;Talarian is excited about working with Novell to combine the world's highest performing middleware with the industry's leading directory service,&uot; says Tom Laffey, Chief Technology Officer of Talarian. &uot;The combination of the two will provide the next generation of real-time enterprise and Internet infrastructure.&uot;

&uot;As more companies continue the trend towards a truly distributed systems architecture, the need for the integration services of middleware combined with the centralized management view of a directory service only becomes more obvious. In today's evolving environments, the combination of the two is not just powerful, it is a requirement,&uot; says Karen Boucher, Executive Vice President of The Standish Group International, Inc. &uot;With this announcement, Talarian and Novell are making this necessity a reality.&uot;

Today's announcement was made from Novell's annual Global Partner Summit taking place this week in Phoenix, Arizona. The Summit brings Novell senior management and technical leaders together with 200 executives from more than 100 leading companies in hardware, software, consulting and systems integration. The Summit is a working forum to collectively develop new initiatives for delivering Net services and applications as well as identifying new points of entry for Novell products and services.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) is the broadest supplier of Net infrastructure software used to integrate and manage the diverse information resources of private business networks and the Internet. Novell's worldwide channel, consulting, developer, education and technical support program, are the most extensive in the network computing industry.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom.> About Talarian

Talarian Corporation is the leading provider of real-time infrastructure software powering the corporate enterprise and the Internet. Through extensive OEM relationships, Talarian's products are running on more computers than any other middleware in the world. Talarian software is deployed by hundreds of the world's largest organizations in their most demanding applications, including the New York Stock Exchange, Credit Suisse First Boston, Lucent Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Nortel Networks, Broadcast.com, MCI WorldCom, and Southwest Airlines. Talarian is a member of the International Middleware Association (IMWA), the Securities Industry Association (SIA) and the Object Management Group (OMG). A privately-held company, Talarian is based in Los Altos, Calif., with satellite offices throughout the United States and the world. For more information, visit Talarian online at www.talarian.com.