Altova XMLSpy Named a CRN Product of the Year for 2005; Leading XML Development Environment Deemed Best Development Tool.

BEVERLY, Mass. -- Altova(R) (www.altova.com), creator of XMLSpy(R) and other leading XML, data management, UML, and Web services tools, today announced that Altova XMLSpy has been named Best Development Tool in the 2005 CRN Test Center Product of the Year Awards by CMP Media's CRN, the newsweekly of vital information for business and technology integrators. Stating, "Hands down, Altova's XML Suite 2005 provides the best XML development tools for system integration," CRN specifically honored Altova XMLSpy as the Suite's flagship product, citing its advanced Web services and XML Schema development capabilities.

Throughout the year, the Director of CRN Labs, Frank Ohlhurst, and his expert staff at the CRN Test Center review, select, and test the most cutting-edge technology available on the market. The Test Center rates products on criteria such as quality, functionality, performance, and innovation. The end results are solutions that use the most innovative, feature-rich, and reliable products manufactured by today's top vendors. In a June 20, 2005 CRN Test Center review, Altova XMLSpy and the entire Altova XML Suite earned nine of 10 stars and the CRN Test Center Recommended status.

"We congratulate Altova XMLSpy for distinguishing itself among the hundreds of products that the CRN Test Center evaluated throughout the year," said Frank Ohlhurst. "As a 2005 CRN Test Center Product of the Year winner, Altova is among an elite group that provides best of breed technology and innovative solutions to our readership."

Altova XMLSpy is the industry standard XML development environment for modeling, editing, debugging, and transforming all XML-related technologies, and automatically generating runtime code from schemas in multiple programming languages. It features advanced XML, DTD, XML Schema, XSLT 1.0/2.0, XPath 1.0/2.0, XQuery, WSDL, SOAP, and code generation capabilities.

"XML and Web services are two of the hottest technologies in use today and it's great to have CRN recognize XMLSpy as the best product for developing software applications in these key areas," said Tim Hale, Director of Marketing for Altova. "This award emphasizes the value that XMLSpy provides to systems integrators and other developers by accelerating their software projects and therefore cutting costs and reducing time to market."

The 2005 CRN Test Center Product of the Year Winners are recognized as outstanding technology vendors in the following product categories: servers, security appliance, notebooks, business applications, storage, printers, displays, database, and development tools. All of this year's winners are featured in the December 19, 2005 issue of CRN and also online at www.crn.com.

About CRN and CRN Test Center

CRN provides Solution Providers and Technology Integrators with the crucial information and analysis they need to drive their company's sales. As an advocate for and voice of the Channel, Solution Providers turn to CRN first for immediate information. With more than 23 years of experience, CRN is the most trusted source for 117,000 channel professionals. CRN can be found on the Web at www.crn.com.

The CRN Test Center is the technology-evaluation department of CRN, providing unbiased product, technology and channel-program analysis specifically targeted at solution providers. The CRN Test Center produces single-product reviews, technology news, technology demonstrations at tradeshows, and product roundups featuring channel-program evaluations. Top products receive the coveted "Recommended" designations.

About CMP Media LLC 

CMP Media LLC (http://www.cmp.com) is a leading integrated media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum-the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. Capitalizing on its editorial strength, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated media solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Its diverse products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, direct marketing services, education and training, trade shows and conferences, and custom publishing.

About Altova

Altova accelerates application development and data management projects with software, services, and solutions that enhance productivity and maximize results. As an innovative, customer-focused company and the creator of XMLSpy and other leading XML, data administration, UML, and Web services tools, Altova is the choice of over 2 million clients worldwide, including virtually every Fortune 500 company. With customers ranging from vast development teams in the world's largest organizations to progressive one-person shops, Altova's line of software applications and custom-tailored professional and educational services fulfills a broad spectrum of business needs. Altova is an active member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Object Management Group (OMG) and is committed to delivering standards-based platform-independent solutions that are powerful, affordable, and easy to use. Altova was founded in 1992 and has headquarters in Beverly, Massachusetts and Vienna, Austria. Visit Altova on the Web at www.altova.com.

Altova and XMLSpy are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Altova GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. The names of and reference to other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.