BEA Introduces BEA M3 -- First Scalable Object Transaction Manager.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 1998--

Product, Services, Partnerships Help Large Customers Use BEA M3 Today

as Safe, Easy Software Platform to Build and Run Component-based Enterprise Applications

BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAS), a market leader in mission-critical middleware solutions, today announced BEA M3(tm) and related partnerships and solutions offerings. BEA M3 is the first and only production-ready Object Transaction Manager (OTM), the next generation of middleware that can serve as a scalable, mission-critical application platform, answering the need for the safe development and deployment of objects in the enterprise.

Objects have not been widely deployed in mission-critical applications because customers lacked a sufficiently reliable software infrastructure that could scale for enterprise client/server applications and leverage existing computing investments. BEA M3 is a production-ready software platform that enables customers to use new component technology safely and reliably to build and run the most critical business applications for the world's largest enterprises.

BEA M3 (formerly code named "Project Iceberg") is being used today by global customers in vertical industries such as telecommunications, finance, and transportation. Early adopters include enterprise customers like Ameritech Corp., DHL International Ltd., and Datenverarbeitungsgesellschaft mbH (dvg Hannover); system integrators like IT Design Ltd.; and innovative packaged application software vendors like Mincom Pty. Ltd. All are using BEA M3 as the basis for mission-critical applications being deployed as early as this fall.

As part of today's announcement of BEA M3, more than 20 companies are endorsing the product for use in today's mission-critical enterprise computing, including leading tools vendors like Rational and Symantec; computer platform vendors like DIGITAL, HP, Sequent, Sun, and Unisys; and technology partners like PeopleSoft and Informix (see accompanying BEA news release issued today). In addition, BEA and leading professional services providers like Genesis Development Corporation and International Systems Group, Inc., are delivering complete education, consulting, and 7x24 technical support for BEA M3, available immediately (see accompanying BEA news release issued today).

"Customers expect BEA to provide reliable solutions for their IT needs, which includes anticipating the IT needs of tomorrow," said Bill Coleman, chairman and CEO of BEA. "Looking forward, BEA saw a clear need for a mission-critical platform for distributed object technology. We developed BEA M3 as a viable method for customers to take advantage of object technology without giving up the scalability and reliability that is essential for mission-critical client/server applications. Of course, not every company has the same IT path, so BEA M3 provides evolutionary technology that doesn't force customers into an `all-or-nothing' commitment to objects."

Customer and Industry Reaction to BEA M3

The release of BEA M3 is the culmination of several years of focused development work and acquisitions, and brings to a close BEA's extensive nine-month Early Adod Windows NT with high performance and reliability.

"System availability is a key measurement for Ameritech; our goal is to have systems available seven days a week, 24 hours a day," says Tim Terry, director of architecture for Ameritech's Customer Solutions Group. "BEA M3's object framework has performance, scalability, and provides a pragmatic way for us to centralize our business logic. This will greatly enhance our ability to serve a diverse set of customer neestry analyst firm. "BEA M3 is a scalable middleware product that provides IT managers an evolutionary path for implementing and managing object-based applications while building upon and leveraging existing environments and applications.ity, performance, load balancing, and

administrative capabilities comparable with that of today's state-of-the-art TP monitors (including BEA TUXEDO)

-- Relopment, testing,

and management tools -0l software component developers can utilize procedural or component-based programming, or incorporate both as needed. This dual approach enables IT managers to build object technology at their own pace, without disrupting current environments. In addition, BEA's supporting product families -- BEA Builder(tm), BEA Connect(tm), BEA Jolt(tm), and BEA Manager(tm) -- are immediately available to support BEA M3 applications.

"Previously, IT departments wanting the benefits that come from using components -- reduced lifetime application cost, shortened development times, and increased flexibility -- had few choices," said Alfred Chuang, executive vice president of product development and chief technology officer for BEA. "Companies often tried to retrofit existing object request brokers (ORBs) through extensive custom development. We believe BEA provides the scalable platform these enterprises have been looking for, along with the services and support they require, all in one complete package."

For maximum flexibility and easy interoperability with other applications, BEA M3 is standards-based. Customers will be able to use the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) as component models for C++ and Java-based development wapplication development, BEA is providing intelligent TP Frameworks and Design Patterns. The TP Frameworks are designed to make writing and managing server-side applications much easier than previously possible. By providing programmers with automated transaction-oriented services as part of BEA's TP Frameworks, developers can now easily add this behavior to their applications. BEA M3 handles object state and transaction management, allowing programmers to focus instead on creating the business logic of the specialized and differentiated applications they know best. Design Patterns take BEA's expertise in mission-critical, high-transaction applications and make it available to developers through code examples and documentation at the application and component design stage.

Availability

BEA M3, with support for C++ servers, will be generally available worldwide on July 24, 1998, on Digital UNIX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Microsoft Windows NT (Intel and Alpha), and Sun Solaris (SPARC) platforms. BEA M3, with support for EJB, is scheduled to beg to choose the programming model they prefer using to write, deploy, and manage applications. An existing BEA TUXEDO customer can move to an integrated BEA TUXEDO/BEA M3egacy environments. BEA provides transactional,daq National Market under the symbol "BEAS." Adct, BEA Manager, and Jolt are trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc. TUXEDO is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Early Adopter Program Customer Quote Addendum

DHL International Ltd.

"We believe BEA M3 has the potential to help us deliver a "BEA M3 from BEA is a superior choice for clude savings and checking accounts, funds transfer, retail branch automation, and ATM networks. Using BEA Maccrue a savings of 70 percent of our programmilopment platform that would enable us to createractices of proven social security systems can t-based enterprise computing. Incorporating BEA M3's CORBA-based architecture into the MIMS Open Enterprise product provides us with a significant benefit in delivering an entire range of EAM solutions to our customers, including continuous upgrades and maintenance, as well as integrating different types of systems in powerful new ways."

Ross Laughlan Director of Product Development Mincom Pty. Ltd.

    CONTACT: Bea Systems, Inc.



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