CONNX Solutions Announces 8.9 Release

Redmond, Washington, July 29, 2003

CONNX Solutions, a leader of data access and integration software solutions, today announced the release of the latest version of its flagship product, CONNX. CONNX 8.9 includes a number of significant performance and feature enhancements, giving companies the freedom to choose the open technology most appropriate for their business needs.

CONNX facilitates the access of data regardless of where it physically resides. CONNX enables organizations to unlock legacy, relational and desktop data sources so business decisions can be made. CONNX provides real-time read/write access to disparate data sources from a single point of connection as if it were a single database.

The list of new features in CONNX version 8.9 includes the following:

- Support for access to VSAM files under Batch Job / Started Task

Prior to CONNX 8.9, access to VSAM was limited to CICS. In some cases, however, during nightly batch processes, the CICS regions are brought down for maintenance. Now, with the support of VSAM using MVS Started Task technology, companies can provide 24/7 access to VSAM data.

- CONNX Enterprise Server Service

The CONNX Enterprise Server Service technology simplifies the deployment of CONNX in both small and large organizations. In cases where CONNX uses the vendor’s native database driver to access data (for example, in Oracle or SQL Server databases), configuration and setup of those drivers takes place on a single middle-tier server, instead of on each client PC. With the Enterprise Server Service, CONNX seamlessly provides a single client-install solution for data access needs throughout the enterprise.

- Performance and GUI enhancements to the CONNX Data Synchronization tool

The CONNX Data Synchronization software enables users to easily move enterprise data from any source location to any target data source. This Windows-based application employs a unique proprietary technique to quickly detect when records are updated, deleted, or inserted. After detecting altered data in the data source file, the CONNX Data Synchronization tool performs incremental updates to the target without ever having to reload the entire data source file. This time-saving technology demonstrates unbeatable performance gains over similar tools as it enables data to be moved up to 10 times faster than a typical complete reload of the data.

- Accelerated performance

CONNX has been further fine-tuned to provide faster performance when accessing flat-file data sources, such as C-ISAM running on Linux, AIX, HPUX, Sun, or Solaris operating systems.

- XML-based query tool

CONNX 8.9 includes Infonaut Professional, which has unique query analysis and optimization features, making it ideal for use during the development cycle. Infonaut exports query results in XML, Microsoft Excel, CSV, or text files.

Since the release of the CONNX Data Synchronization tool, customers have been using the product to build relational-to-relational as well as nonrelational-to-relational data marts and data warehouses. The CONNX Data Synchronization tool is optimized to operate efficiently over wide area networks (WANs), a requirement when pulling data from different locations into centralized target databases. The CONNX Data Synchronization tool also plays an integral role when migrating data from one data source to another.

"CONNX Solutions has leveraged its flagship CONNX technology of integrating all of the information within an organization under a single common methodology, and now has added an extremely useful tool to take advantage of that power and ease of use, making the CONNX Data Synchronization tool an instant hit with our customers," says Douglas D. Wright, President/CEO of CONNX Solutions.

"Our customers are moving 142 million rows of data in a little over 2 hours. They are avoiding expensive and lengthy custom coding cycles and are integrating our unique capabilities with the major ETL tool vendors, such as Ascential, Informatica, and Embarcadero. Estimated savings include one dedicated technical resource, 4 months of time, and thousands of dollars on the initial setup," says Shirley M. McKinney, Director of Sales, for CONNX Solutions.

CONNX Solutions also reconfirms its commitment to open technologies, such as Web Services, XML, JMS, and SOAP. CONNX customers are actively using the product in a wide range of open technologies, and CONNX is constantly ensuring easy integration and compatibility with various technologies.

About CONNX Solutions

CONNX provides businesses secure read/write real-time access to all enterprise data from any platform as if all the data existed in one relational database. This technology has been referred to as a "federated database", or a "virtual database". All data is then accessible using standard ANSI SQL and any standards-based application. CONNX acts as a reusable data access framework for projects throughout the enterprise. CONNX supports Microsoft SQL Server (on all platforms), Sybase (on all platforms), Informix (on all platforms), C-ISAM (on Linux, AIX, Sun, Solaris, and SCO operating systems) , IBM VSAM (on z/OS, OS/390, MVS, and VSE), IBM DB2 (on all platforms), Oracle (on all platforms), RMS, Rdb and Codasyl DBMS (on OpenVMS and VMS platforms), PostGreSQL (on all platforms), Dataflex, POWERflex, and any OLE DB, ODBC, or JDBC data source.

CONNX Solutions, CONNX, and InfoNaut are registered trademarks of CONNX Solutions. All other trademarks are acknowledged.