Business Services Industry

Forum Systems Joins IBM SOA Partner Program; Forum Systems SOA Security Suite Extends IBM's Identity Management and Middleware for Enterprise Web Services

Business Wire, March 6, 2006

LAS VEGAS -- Forum Systems, the leader in Web services and SOA security for threat protection and trust management, today announced that it has joined the IBM SOA Partner Program. Forum's XWall(TM) web services firewall and Sentry(TM) web services security gateway bring security enforcement points to IBM's identity management and middleware. This announcement builds on Forum's integration into IBM SOA infrastructure and joint enterprise customer experience through increased access to IBM resources, assets and go-to-market support required for real-world SOA implementations.

"You can't successfully deploy SOA without security enforcement points. Identities are essential in order to authenticate and authorize access to Web services and Forum is the glue that enforces identity policies. By bringing robust access enforcement capabilities to IBM Tivoli and WebSphere, Forum is enabling interoperable and reliable Web services through advanced protocol mixing and asynchronous communications," said Walid Negm, VP of Marketing for Forum Systems.

Continued Negm, "IBM is uniquely positioned to develop an SOA ecosystem through its WebSphere software, collective experience, resources and expertise from across the company. By joining IBM's SOA initiative, Forum builds on its relationship with IBM and our customers can count on IBM best practices to help support our engagements and gain the greatest value out of their entire SOA ecosystem."

The SOA Business Partner Community was founded to help ISVs and system integrators successfully develop and implement a service-oriented architecture with their customers. The initiative includes tools, resources and education to help ease SOA deployments. Since its introduction in June 2005, the Community has doubled in size and continues to rapidly grow.

About Forum Systems

Forum Systems, Inc. is the Leader in Web Services and SOA Security(TM) with a comprehensive suite of trust management, threat protection and information assurance solutions for the automated Web. Forum Systems' flexible hardware, software and embedded products make vibrant business communications possible by actively protecting XML data and Web services across networks and business boundaries. Forum's products have been chosen by over 150 Fortune 1000 industry leaders and are winners of Network Computing Magazine's Well-Connected 2004 Award and Product of the Year 2004 Award, Network Computing Magazine's Editor's Choice 2003 Award, Network Magazine's Product of the Year 2003 Award and DEMO 2004 Invitation. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall is the industry's only XML Firewall selected by InfoWorld LEADERBOARD 2004. Visit Forum at http://www.forumsys.com/.> All names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.