REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 21, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. today announced broad industry support of the Microsoft® Universal Data Access strategy, a platform, application and tools initiative based on open industry specifications for providing access to information from the desktop to the enterprise. Companies working closely with Microsoft are offering products and services to support customers that are developing a wide variety of applications, from mainframe and client/server applications to Web sites. Universal Data Access provides organizations with high-performance access to a variety of data and information sources on the Windows NT® operating system and other platforms, and an easy-to-use programming interface that works with practically any tool or language, increasing developers’ productivity by enabling them to leverage the skills they already have. In addition, Universal Data Access is a central element to the recently announced Microsoft Windows® Distributed interNet Applications architecture (DNA), Microsoft’s architectural framework for building modern, scalable, multitier distributed computing solutions that can be delivered over any network.
“We are pleased to see the wealth of support from the industry for the Universal Data Access strategy,” said Rich Tong, vice president of marketing, personal and business systems group at Microsoft. “With such broad-ranging support, we can ensure that the Microsoft data access components meet the needs of the broadest reach of customers. Ultimately, the Universal Data Access strategy enables customers to create applications that are highly adept at processing the breadth of data users work with every day.”
Industry Acclaim for Microsoft Universal Data Access Strategy
“Jasmine’s inherent multimedia and Internet capabilities are ideally suited for delivering the business computing applications our customers are looking for,” said Yogesh Gupta, senior vice president of product strategy at Computer Associates (CA). “By integrating OLE DB with Jasmine, Microsoft and CA are enabling customers to use OLE DB in the Windows-based environment and beyond.”
“Our customers are building great Internet and intranet solutions today,” said Russ Henry, director of marketing, tools and connectivity products at Informix Software Inc. “Informix is working closely with Microsoft and others to make OLE DB a high-performance, cost-effective means for our customers to extend their Informix Dynamic Server solutions to the Internet.”
“ISG is pleased to support the Universal Data Access initiative, enabling data access to distributed enterprise data through ADO, OLE DB and ODBC,” said Arie Gonen, chairman and chief executive officer of International Software Group Ltd. (ISG). “We use Microsoft’s OLE DB specification as the foundation of ISG Navigator, and we find ADO and OLE DB to be the most powerful, robust and comprehensive way to access data. ISG Navigator users benefit from the Universal Data Access strategy, since it enables Microsoft tools on Windows 95 and Windows NT to utilize data from multiple sources on different platforms including Windows NT, UNIX, VMS and others.”
“As one of the leading proponents for and early pioneers in data access standards, INTERSOLV strongly supports Microsoft’s Universal Data Access strategy,” said Edward Peters, vice president and general manager of DataDirect at INTERSOLV Inc. “With Microsoft’s blueprint for high-performance enterprise data access and our expertise in data connectivity, INTERSOLV ensures that users can leverage existing infrastructures to quickly deploy critical applications with standards-based data connectivity, regardless of platform.”
“Sybase profoundly believes that enterprises will increasingly look to component technology for lowering deployment cost and increasing deployment flexibility of their IT investments,” said Mike Regan, vice president and general manager, enterprise database group for Sybase Inc. “We are excited about OLE DB as an enabler of Universal Data Access components, and are working closely with Microsoft and others to ensure high-performance, reliable data access and data integration with Sybase Adaptive Server and Sybase EnterpriseConnect using OLE DB.”
The technologies that support Universal Data Access – including ActiveX
™
Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB and ODBC – enable users to improve performance of client/server and Web-based applications and reduce development and support costs, using their choice of best-of-breed tools, applications and server-side applications. Several key industry segments support and benefit from the Universal Data Access strategy, which in turn benefits their customers. (For a complete list of vendors, go to http://www.microsoft.com/data/oledb/products/product.htm .
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Development tools vendors can provide access to a broader range of data sources, thus enabling their customers to build richer, more functional applications.
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Data access component builders, when building OLE DB components, provide a broadly accepted standard environment in which to deploy their products. These OLE DB components enable customers to access more data, find more readily available support for building custom and integrated solutions, and interoperate with a broad array of products across the platform.
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DBMS vendors can gain additional high-performance clients for their DBMS engines and information stores, extending to customers a broader choice of
development tools and other supporting technologies as well as enabling them to integrate data from more sources. Having a broad array of tools and applications support for information stores in turn enables these vendors to provide their customers with more choices, translating to better solutions, developed more quickly, and higher customer satisfaction.
Universal Data Access and Windows DNA Unify Data Storage and Access Techniques
Universal Data Access advances Windows DNA by providing a consistent, tool-independent, high-level interface to data, support for both network connected and disconnected users, and unification of structured and unstructured data stores. Together, Windows DNA and Universal Data Access unify client/server, Web and legacy data storage and access techniques.
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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Industry Acclaim for Microsoft Universal Data Access Strategy
October 1997
“Microsoft Universal Data Access (ADO, OLE DB, ODBC) represents a comprehensive and consistent enterprise interoperability architecture. Our UniAccess product suite implemented the Microsoft® architecture on Unisys mainframes six years ago. By first supporting Microsoft DB-Library, then ODBC and more recently, OLE DB and ADO, UniAccess enabled the thousands of mainstream tools and technology that Microsoft attracts to its platforms to interoperate with Unisys mainframes and enable legacy application modernization. Today, UniAccess and the Microsoft architecture are by far the No. 1 selling and deployed interoperability architecture in the Unisys mainframe community worldwide. Microsoft Universal Data Access delivers the interoperability our enterprise customers require to implement two- and three-tier distributed applications.”
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David A. Mucka
Co-Founder and President
Applied Information Sciences Inc.
“The proliferation of the Microsoft Windows NT® platform in Japan and the growth of intranet and Internet applications generate the need for a Universal Data Access solution. ISG Navigator provides an advanced, efficient solution for Universal Data Access by implementing the power and flexibility of Microsoft’s new standards for data access – ADO and OLE DB.”
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Ken Yamamoto
General Managera
Information Processing and Electronic Systems Division
Mitsui & Company Ltd.
“The integration between ObjectStore and OLE DB will be extremely useful to our customers building Windows® -based applications. Our immediately available support for the OLE DB standard is another example of how Object Design is supporting customers with the products they need to easily build and deploy component-based computing applications.”
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Justin Perreault
Chief Operating Officer
Object Design Inc.
“We are pleased to support the Microsoft Universal Data Access strategy. Decision support users can now access the power of Tandem’s NonStop SQL database through the widely used, flexible, Web-enabled Universal Data Access interfaces, and inherit the reliability and scalability of Tandem NonStop Software.”
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Rob Holbrook
Vice President
Product Management and Solutions Development
Tandem Computers Inc.
“For our next-generation systems, we required an architecture that supported the latest development tools and end-user technology and delivered the performance necessary for statewide systems. AIS UniAccess inherits tens of billions of mainstream product R & D dollars that are being invested in the Microsoft architecture while also delivering outstanding performance and reliability.”
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Zack Zambri
MIS Director
New York Department of Civil Services
Microsoft, Windows NT and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
