Brio Technology Partners With Ardent in Meta Data Integration Program; Brio Looks to Extend Customers' Ability to Dynamically Utilize Meta Data from Enterprise Data Warehouse Components.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 1998--Brio Technology, (Nasdaq:BRYO) today announced that it has joined the Ardent Software MetaConnect Cooperative, a breakthrough meta data integration program designed to allow warehouse tools to share meta data directly, across the enterprise.

The MetaConnect program is designed to enable the transformation of meta data as it is exchanged among tools, giving end-users the ability to see and understand meta data lineage as well as the business rules that apply to the warehoused data. In joining the Ardent MetaConnect Cooperative, Brio is providing customers with a meta data integration solution that will enhance the value and effectiveness of the data warehouse.

Designed to better enable the end users access to data transparently, Ardent's MetaConnect program facilitates the meta data interchange between Brio's award winning tool, Brio Enterprise, and other data warehouse components. Because of the proliferation of proprietary meta data throughout an organization, efforts such as this are a critical step to enabling customers to share and re-use meta data throughout the enterprise. Today, the Brio Enterprise Open Metadata Interpreter, dynamically reads meta data directly from any central repository, eliminating redundancy due to transfer, import or extraction of meta data into the client tool environment. Through this partnership, Brio and Ardent will work together to provide enhanced access to meta data and increase data warehouse usage and success.

"In order for customers to fully reap the rewards from its data warehouse, meta data must be effectively managed, shared and utilized throughout the company," said Jannell Wei, director of channel and partner marketing at Brio Technology. "Brio and Ardent, through the MetaConnect Cooperative, will work closely to help customers realize the benefits of centralized management of and dynamic access to meta data with the Brio Open Metadata Interpreter."

"The MetaConnect partner program is groundbreaking in that Ardent is working cooperatively with Brio to ensure manageability and accessibility of meta data in our customers' data warehouse environments. In doing so, customers benefit from the quality and completeness of the integration enabling them to focus on other more pressing IT initiatives," said Pete Fiore, vice president and general manager of Ardent Software's Data Warehouse business unit. "Moreover, MetaConnect will allow software tools throughout the enterprise to communicate seamlessly with other warehouse components by transforming meta data as it is exchanged."

About Brio Technology

Brio Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:BRYO) is a leading provider of enterprise business intelligence software. Brio develops, markets and supports software products that improve the ability of business professionals to make timely, fact-based business decisions. Available in five languages on ten platforms, the Brio Enterprise suite of products is used by businesses in more than 20 countries. Brio products are available through direct sales and services organizations located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia, and worldwide through VARs, resellers and distributors. Brio has commercial relationships with Access Graphics, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HWP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Netscape (Nasdaq:NSCP), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW). Brio Technology is based in Palo Alto, California, and can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.brio.com, or by calling 1.800.879.BRIO.

About Ardent Software

Ardent Software is a data management company with a range of software products, including database systems and data warehouse development tools. Its products include the O2 System(R), a high-performance object database management system; DataStage(R), a data warehouse development tool; and UniVerse(R) and UniData(R), extended relational database management systems for packaged business applications. With worldwide sales and service operations, as well as 1,000 resellers in more than 50 countries, Ardent is one of the top software companies in the world. More than 50,000 customers and over 2,000,000 users in virtually every aspect of business and government use Ardent's products to overcome their most complex data management problems. Additional information is available on Ardent's web site at www.ardentsoftware.com.

Statements expressing the beliefs and expectations of management regarding future performance are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, quarterly fluctuations in results and other risks. These risks are detailed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the Company's Forms 10-Q and 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997. Actual results may differ materially from management's expectations.

COBOL Direct Connect, DataStage, O2 System, RedBack, System Builder, UniData UniVerse and wIntegrate are registered trademarks of Ardent Software, Inc. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of the respective trademark holders.