Informix and Microsoft to Market Visual Basic-Based Solutions For Informix Enterprise Customers

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 1997 — Today at the Informix Worldwide Users’ Conference, Microsoft Corp. and Informix Software Inc. announced they have agreed to comarket the Microsoft® Visual Basic® programming system and INFORMIX ÒData Director Ôfor Informix-based solutions for the Windows NT® operating system. Informix also has joined the Microsoft Enterprise Development Partners program. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will provide comarketing and advertising support for INFORMIX-Data Director, while Informix’s worldwide sales force will market INFORMIX-Data Director as part of a Visual Basic-based solution. The Informix worldwide sales force will demonstrate Visual Basic with Data Director to Informix enterprise customers.

In a separate but related announcement, Informix announced the immediate availability of INFORMIX-Data Director for developers using Visual Basic. INFORMIX-Data Director’s model-driven data management platform and tight integration with Visual Basic will enable millions of developers using Microsoft Visual Basic to accelerate the development process when creating scalable high-performance Informix-based solutions for Windows NT.

“This agreement is further evidence that Visual Basic is truly engaged in the enterprise,” said Paul Gross, vice president of developer tools at Microsoft. “Developers creating Informix-based solutions will benefit from the advanced features in Visual Basic and its leading-edge technology for creating fast, high-performance enterprise-class applications.”

“This agreement is a tremendous next step in our ongoing relationship with Microsoft,” said Brett Bachman, vice president and general manager of enterprise products at Informix. “In keeping with Informix’s Universal Tools Strategy, we have tightly integrated INFORMIX-Data Director with Visual Basic to open our servers for the vast market of developers wishing to more easily capture the power and scalability of Informix databases. This solution will ensure that our customers developing Windows NT-based solutions are able to utilize the best technology from both Informix and Microsoft.”

Informix Joins Microsoft’s Elite Enterprise Development Partners

As part of the marketing agreement, Informix will join the Microsoft Enterprise Development Partners program. As an Enterprise Development Partner, Informix will work closely with Microsoft to comarket complementary development tools to enterprise-level developers. Informix is very important to Microsoft’s strategy of being able to provide corporate developers with comprehensive solutions and choices to solve their everyday business problems. More information about the Microsoft Enterprise Development Partners program is available at http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/isv/default.asp .

Visual Basic – The Industry’s Leading RAD Development Tool

Visual Basic is both the most widely used and the fastest-growing development language in the world, with more than 3 million active developers worldwide. In the rapid application development (RAD) tool category, 80 percent of developers use Visual Basic, almost three times the number using all other RAD tools combined. In addition, more than 500,000 professional developers have adopted Visual Basic since March 1996.

First introduced in October 1995, Visual Basic, Enterprise Edition is the most efficient tool for creating high-performance enterprise applications. It is designed to provide enhanced functionality for each phase of the client/server and Internet application life cycle. Visual Basic 5.0 is the flagship product of Microsoft’s new development system, The Visual Studio
™
97 development system, a comprehensive suite of Microsoft’s market-leading development tools for integrating client/server computing with the latest Internet technologies. More information is available at the Visual Basic Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/vbasic/ or the Visual Studio Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/vstudio/ .

INFORMIX-Data Director for Visual Basic

A tightly integrated, plug-in module for Visual Basic, INFORMIX-Data Director allows developers to use their knowledge of Microsoft Visual Basic with unrivaled model-driven, drag-and-drop functionality to rapidly prototype, build and deploy scalable client/server applications for Informix’s servers. This enhancement of Visual Basic vastly reduces the amount of application code developers need to write. Data Director seamlessly integrates with Visual Basic both at design time and at run time, simplifying all aspects of client/server development. The DataLink Manager extends the Visual Basic design environment with a drag-and-drop data access window. Data Director’s run-time engine generates SQL commands that automate all client-side data management operations.

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 business. 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/) .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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