IONA to Lead Discussion of Standards' Importance to Software's Future at Web Services Edge East.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

Standards Architects from W3C, IBM and Software AG will Join IONA CTO Eric Newcomer to Highlight the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web

Services Architecture Specification Effort

IONA(R), the leading provider of Rapid Integration software (NASDAQ: IONA), today announced that Chief Technology Officer Eric Newcomer will lead a panel of software industry experts at the Web Services Edge East Conference to be held later this month in Boston. The panel, titled, "Web Services Architecture: The Next Big Spec, From the Mouths of the W3C Authors" will be held on Wednesday, March 19 at 3:00 p.m. as part of the conference's Web services track.

The panel will discuss how the W3C will help shape the future of Web services with a successful architecture specification. Joining Mr. Newcomer on the panel will be:

-- Heather Kreger, Web services lead architect for emerging technologies at IBM

-- Michael Champion, lead research and development specialist at Software AG

-- David Booth, senior research architect at W3C

Each of the panel participants has contributed to the ongoing efforts of the W3C to develop and drive adoption of a Web services architecture specification to promote interoperable technologies.

"The development and wide acceptance of a common reference architecture is crucial to the success of Web services," said Eric Newcomer. "IONA's more than decade-long focus has been to drive adoption of standards-based technologies that preserve openness and bring value to end users. We are bringing together four significant contributors to the Web Services Architecture specification, we hope to encourage the wider discussion and further development of a common architecture to benefit the software industry and its customers."

At Web Services Edge East, conference attendees can also visit the IONA booth (booth #421) on the show floor to learn more about the company's recently announced Mobile Orchestrator and Rapid Integration technologies. For more information please visit www.iona.com.

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.

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