CUPERTINO, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash., July 26, 1999 — Rational Software Corp. and Microsoft Corp. today announced an alliance to help organizations build and deploy the next generation of enterprise Web applications more quickly and reliably using the Microsoft® Visual Studio® development system.
This alliance broadens and deepens the relationship Rational and Microsoft began in 1996. The initial three-year agreement has enabled customers to build more scalable and robust enterprise applications using the companies’ combined solutions. With the strategic alliance announced today, the companies’ relationship now spans a number of new areas, including tighter integration of products, joint development and marketing, cross-licensing of technology and training materials, continued embedding of Rational’s visual modeling technology into Microsoft Visual Studio, and broad internal use of Rational Suite Enterprise TM , Rational Suite PerformanceStudio TM and Rational ClearCase® by Microsoft’s software development teams.
“Building enterprise Web applications with Windows® DNA requires effective software development teams, and Rational’s enterprise team-unifying solution is the perfect complement to Visual Studio,”
said Paul Maritz, group vice president of Microsoft’s Developer Group.
“This alliance builds on the successful multiyear relationship we’ve had with Rational and allows us to capitalize on Rational’s success with enterprise companies while providing an even better combined solution for our mutual customers. Further, Rational’s tools will be instrumental in Microsoft’s continuing efforts to produce higher-quality, higher-performance software.”
As part of this alliance, Microsoft is licensing Rational Suite Enterprise, Rational Suite PerformanceStudio and Rational ClearCase for use throughout its software development teams.
“Many Microsoft development teams look forward to taking advantage of the integrated life-cycle solution from Rational,”
said Tom Button, product unit manager for Visual Studio at Microsoft. Use of Rational products by Microsoft will in turn help Rational provide better support for Microsoft platforms and technologies. Rational will extend its support for additional Microsoft Windows Distributed interNet Applications (Windows DNA) and COM+ technologies such as Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software, Microsoft SQL Server TM , Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO).
Rational and Microsoft will also continue to use the market-leading Rational Rose® modeling technology as a basis for co-developing the Visual Modeler component of Visual Studio. Visual Modeler supports logical application design based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and allows the detailed visual description of components, component relationships, methods, properties and events. The companies are continuing to work closely together on modeling technology for Visual Studio.
Rational has joined the Visual Studio Integration Program (VSIP) (see today’s news release headlined
“Microsoft Announces Visual Studio Integration Program” ) to more deeply integrate its Rational Suite and Rational ClearCase life-cycle tools with Visual Studio tools such as the Visual Basic® , Visual C++® and Visual J++® development systems.
Utilizing the technologies provided in the VSIP, Rational’s integrated product offerings will further reduce the complexity of building enterprise Web applications by delivering richer functionality and improved productivity. For example, customers will benefit from the improved consistency between Rational’s modeling solutions and modeling solutions delivered in Visual Studio. Rational intends to take advantage of the flexibility offered by the VSIP to strengthen its line of Java enterprise life-cycle tools by building a Java language compiler that will be deeply integrated into the Visual Studio environment. Further, Rational and Microsoft will work together to provide more specific process guidance in the Rational Unified Process for software teams building enterprise Web applications using Rational and Visual Studio technologies. The seamless integration of Visual Studio tools and the Rational suite of products will deliver an industry-leading solution for creating the next generation of enterprise Web applications.
In a separate announcement today, Microsoft announced that Rational is providing an automated test solution to help with compliance testing for the newly announced Certified for Windows program for applications. To qualify for the Certified for Windows logo, applications must comply with the Application Specification for Windows 2000, the definitive technical guide to developing the most reliable and manageable applications for the Windows platform. To help developers introduce compliance testing early in their application development life cycle, Rational will deliver Rational TestFoundation for Windows 2000, a free*, downloadable extension to Rational TeamTest that will provide an automated testing solution for validation of compliance with Windows 2000 and overall compatibility with Windows 2000. In addition, Lionbridge’s VeriTest laboratories, the company providing global compliance testing for certification, will use the Rational TestFoundation for Windows 2000.
To broaden the companies’ education and training solution for enterprise Web applications built with Windows DNA, Rational and Microsoft will cross-license portions of their education and training materials. This will enable Microsoft and its training providers to provide developers with a comprehensive life-cycle software engineering curriculum that spans requirements management, analysis and design, UML, automated software testing, and more. At the same time, the alliance will enable Rational to offer courseware that more tightly couples its existing software engineering and product training offerings with Microsoft-specific technologies and architectures. Customers will benefit from the ability to get training courses from both companies that provide detailed instruction on software development methodologies, development tools, technology and application architecture, and implementation. Further, the two companies will work together on developing joint courseware and tailoring the Rational Unified Process for Microsoft technologies. This will give customers the opportunity to enhance their skills in both software engineering best practices and the direct application of Rational and Microsoft technologies in building next-generation enterprise Web applications.
“Our mutual customers have realized the benefits of our strong, multiyear relationship with Microsoft and our tight integration with Microsoft technologies,”
said Mike Devlin, Rational’s chief executive officer.
“Windows DNA is a key platform for developing successful enterprise Web applications. Extending this alliance between Rational and Microsoft strengthens our combined solution for software teams building the next generation of enterprise Web applications.”
About Rational
Rational (Nasdaq
“RATL”
), the leader in unifying software teams, helps organizations develop and deploy e-business, Web, enterprisewide, technical and embedded software through a
combination of tools, services and software engineering best practices. Rational’s solution unifies the key members of a software team – including analysts, developers and testers – and provides unique offerings optimized for each of these roles, thereby improving team and individual productivity. Rational simplifies the process of acquiring, deploying and supporting a comprehensive development platform, reducing total cost of ownership. Founded in 1981, Rational had revenues of $411.8 million for its fiscal year that ended in March 1999 and employs thousands of people worldwide. For more information, visit Rational at http://www.rational.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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