Credit Suisse Renews Commitment To IONA; Proven IONA Application Server Platform Generates Significant Savings with Re-use of Legacy IT Systems.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WALTHAM, Mass. & ZURICH, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2003

IONA(R), the leading provider of Rapid Integration software (NASDAQ: IONA), today announced that Credit Suisse entered into an enterprise development and runtime license agreement in the fourth Quarter of 2002 for use of IONA's Orbix E2A(TM) Application Server Platform (ASP).

Credit Suisse first began using IONA's CORBA(R) technology in 1998 to enable the interoperability of mainframe-based applications with Web-based technologies. This latest agreement for the use of IONA's Orbix E2A Application Server Platform will enable Credit Suisse to further extend and optimize legacy applications in support of reduced management costs, accelerated system enhancements and real-time data access for both internal staff and customers.

Orbix E2A ASP's service-oriented deployment infrastructure facilitates the design and integration of applications via a standards-based interface or as a "service," making them transparently interoperable across disparate IT environments, including mainframe systems. With Orbix E2A ASP, Credit Suisse successfully consolidated and integrated several back-end mainframe OS/390 systems with a variety of front-end applications to support the company's larger e-business efforts. The platform enables the creation and deployment of business processes or new, large-scale enterprise applications quickly, with minimal code development, while preserving original qualities-of-service (QoS), such as security.

This flexibility and manageability has translated into greater business efficiency for Credit Suisse. "IONA's Orbix E2A is helping us experience the benefits of a standards-based, service-oriented integration infrastructure," said Andreas Manz, Head of IT Systems Engineering, Member of the Management Committee Technology and Operations of Credit Suisse. "By adopting open standards technology we are protecting our legacy IT assets while also ensuring the scalability of the platform over time in meeting ongoing technology and systems integration requirements. With improved levels of performance across our business systems we are continuing to realize significant returns in cost savings and service levels."

"We are extremely proud of what IONA has been able to achieve to date for Credit Suisse and are confident that we can continue to deliver significant cost benefits within the framework of this latest license agreement," said Barry Morris, CEO at IONA.

Orbix E2A(TM) Application Server Platform

IONA's Orbix E2A Application Server Platform (ASP) is the industry's only enterprise deployment infrastructure for distributed Web services, Java 2, Enterprise Edition(TM) (J2EE(TM)) and CORBA applications. Orbix E2A ASP 6.0 enables organizations to proactively leverage their existing operating platforms, programming language expertise, and legacy application investments when building new, large-scale integrated business applications that support reduced costs, increased efficiency, and greater business flexibility. In support of enterprise-scale distributed applications involving multiple technologies, it also provides a set of application services that offer a single point of integration for security, messaging, transactions, load balancing and fault tolerance, and management.

IONA's Orbix E2A product lines benefit from the company's commitment to open standards. IONA is an active member of the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization and the SOAPBuilders Forum-independent organizations dedicated to the promotion and interoperability of Web services standards. IONA recently hosted the SOAPBuilders Interoperability Lab Round III at its Waltham, MA headquarters. At the event, IONA's Orbix E2A XMLBus demonstrated superior support and interoperability across WSDL and with all SOAP encoding styles. IONA is also an active member of other industry standards bodies including the W3C, OASIS, and OMG.

About Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. The business unit Credit Suisse Financial Services provides private clients and small and medium-sized companies with private banking and financial advisory services, banking products, and pension and insurance solutions from Winterthur. The business unit Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment bank, serves global institutional, corporate, government and individual clients in its role as a financial intermediary. Credit Suisse Group's registered shares (CSGN) are listed in Switzerland and Frankfurt, and in the form of American Depositary Shares (CSR) in New York. The Group employs around 80,000 staff worldwide. As of September 30, 2002, it reported assets under management of CHF 1,221.8 billion.

About IONA

IONA is the leading provider of Rapid Integration software with more than 4,500 customers worldwide. IONA's award-winning Rapid Integration software products are built on: service-oriented architectures that increase reuse of software assets to deliver lasting results, standards-based software that enables vendor independence, and incremental deployment capabilities that lower the customer's risk.

Founded in 1991, IONA(R) (NASDAQ: IONA) is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices worldwide. For additional information about IONA, visit our Web site at http://www.iona.com.

IONA, IONA Technologies, the IONA logo, Orbix, E2A, End 2 Anywhere, End To Anywhere, Orbix E2A, IONA E2A, IONA e-Business Platform, iPortal Application Server, SureTrack, IONA XMLBus, Adaptive Runtime Technology, Orbacus, Orbix/E, IONA University and Total Business Integration are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.