Allaire Announces Database Web Application Strategy for Corporate Intranets; New Product Offerings and Pricing Strategies Meet the Demands of Intranet Developers; Strategy Includes a Licensing Agreement with O'Reilly and Associates, New Products, and Added Support for Microsoft BackOffice 2.0.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 1996--Allaire Corp. made a series of announcements today as part of a new strategy to aggressively meet the needs of corporate Intranet managers for database Web applications.

The strategy includes the announcement of an Intranet product bundle with Cold Fusion Professional 1.5 for database Web application development and Allaire Forums Enterprise for Intranet class Web conferencing, a new set of enhancements for Cold Fusion, a licensing agreement with O'Reilly and Associates to bundle Cold Fusion Standard with WebSite Professional, new site license pricing for Cold Fusion, and added support for Microsoft BackOffice 2.0.

Corporate Intranets are growing extremely fast, and there is a demand for solutions which offer an easy way to integrate emerging Internet protocols with traditional database technologies to deliver interactive Web applications that go beyond static HTML pages.

Cold Fusion Professional gives developers the tools to build a new generation of Intranet client/server applications which integrate ODBC compliant databases, HTTP Web servers, SMTP mail servers, and emerging Internet technologies like Sun's Java programming environment and Microsoft Corporation's Active X. Allaire Forums Enterprise will give Intranet managers a turnkey solution for enterprise wide conferencing with features specifically designed to meet the needs of Intranet users.

"The wide adoption of Internet standards for corporate Intranets has created an incredible opportunity for firms to realize the promise of database Web applications for corporate computing systems," explained J.J. Allaire, chief executive officer at Allaire Corp. "Cold Fusion and Allaire Forums give Intranet developers the tools to deliver powerful client/server applications via internal corporate Webs. Our commitment to consistently encapsulate emerging Internet technologies in high-level, easy-to-use tools guarantees that developers will be able to keep their production systems on the cutting edge of the technology."

Server-side solutions which work with multiple Web platforms

Unlike other client/server strategies, Cold Fusion works on the server-side without requiring proprietary client software. By eliminating the need to develop and deploy new client software for multiple client operating systems, database Web applications can result in significant cost savings and faster development time.

Cold Fusion offers Web developers a way to create applications which work with all of the major Web development environments on Windows NT and Windows 95. Netscape Communications Corporation and Microsoft Corporation are both offering Web platforms. Database Web applications created with Cold Fusion work with both of these platforms and with all of the other major Web servers, SMTP servers, ODBC compliant databases, and other emerging Internet technologies such as Java.

Reliable, easy-to-use tools which encapsulate emerging Internet technologies

Cold Fusion encapsulates complicated protocols and technologies in easy-to-use commands which can be integrated with HTML. A page created with Cold Fusion uses both HTML tags and tags from the Cold Fusion Database Markup Language (DBML), which are processed on the server.

The flexibility of DBML lets Web developers quickly create complicated Web applications without learning difficult programming languages. At the same time, Cold Fusion's multithreaded system service architecture and high-performance database caching guarantee reliable performance and the ability to scale applications to meet the demands enterprise-wide global Intranets.

The Cold Fusion Fuel Packs program announced today will deliver a series of new products which enhance Cold Fusion and continue to give developers straightforward access to emerging Internet technologies. The Fuel Packs released today include a package of lightweight, database-driven Java graphs which can be used to add pie graphs, bar graphs, and area graphs to the Web as well as a number of other new technologies.

Collaborative applications which enable communication via the Web

Allaire Forums Enterprise announced today is an enterprise class version of Allaire's Web-based conferencing system Allaire Forums. With the Allaire Forums conferencing system, Intranet managers can use their Intranet for communication and collaboration by creating multiple, threaded discussion groups on their internal or public Web sites. The intuitive user interface facilitates communication, and the open architecture lets developers extend the system with Cold Fusion.

Allaire Forums Enterprise will include additional features specifically designed for enterprise-wide conferencing. The Enterprise edition will support major database servers like Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. The Enterprise edition will also offer more flexible administration and advanced reporting features.

The Intranet product offering is available now.

Allaire's Intranet product offering is available now. Cold Fusion Professional can be purchased directly from Allaire for $495. The product may be ordered by calling 612/831-1808. Product information, a free 30-day evaluation, a list of sites using Cold Fusion, and the Allaire developers conference can be found at http://www.allaire.com.

Allaire Forums requires Cold Fusion and it is available from Allaire for $395. Allaire Forums Enterprise is available in a final beta release. A Cold Fusion and Allaire Forums bundle is available for $795. The Allaire Forums products can be purchased from Allaire by calling 612/831-1808. Site license and enterprise pricing are available on request. Product information, a free evaluation version, a list of sites using Allaire Forums, and the Allaire developers conference can be found at http://www.allaire.com.

Allaire designs and markets innovative Web software for international corporate, government, and university markets. All of Allaire's products are based on industry standards and protocols. Allaire's customers include major companies, government agencies, non-government organizations, and universities worldwide. -0-

Note to Editors: Cold Fusion and Allaire are trademarks of Allaire Corp. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and Internet Information Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Java and other Java-based names are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. and refer to Sun's family of Java-branded technologies. WebSite is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates. Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation.

CONTACT: Allaire Corp.

Adam Berrey, 612/832-9030 Ext. 244

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