Marconi Supports Emerging Telecom Industry Standards Through the Extensibility of IONA's Artix.

DUBLIN, Ireland & WALTHAM, Mass. -- Global Provider of Telecommunications Equipment and Services Selects Artix Extensible ESB to Web Service Enable Their Next-generation Product Offerings

IONA(R) Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA), a world leader in high-performance integration solutions for mission-critical IT environments, today announced that Marconi Corporation plc (London: MONI and NASDAQ: MRCIY), a global provider of telecommunications equipment and services, has selected Artix(TM), IONA's extensible Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), to enable Web services-based integration in the company's various products and solutions. Marconi chose Artix for its ability to make the company's network devices and applications compatible with the existing and emerging standards that drive the telecommunications industry.

Telecommunications carriers recognize that the key to retaining customers and generating new revenue streams is their ability to create and deploy new service offerings quickly, securely and cost effectively. However, carrier agility can be hampered by the multiple generations of systems, platforms and network environments that comprise the typical carrier's IT infrastructure. Companies like Marconi that supply equipment and services to the carrier market can help ease the challenges faced by their customers by delivering products that support network and protocol convergence and can be easily integrated into their customer environments. As an extensible ESB, Artix is designed to provide the high-performance, mission-critical integration and interoperability required by Marconi.

"With Artix, we can achieve seamless, non-invasive Web service enablement of our products with minimal code changes. And because of Artix's extensibility, we can be confident of our ability to support any standards we face in a deployment environment," said Graham Francis, Network Intelligence Product Manager, Marconi. "As a long-term Orbix customer, we know IONA understands the complexities and performance demands of mission critical systems for the telecommunications industry. Particularly valuable to us is Artix's ability to link established CORBA(R) applications with those built on the telecommunications industry's emerging Parlay standards."

Parlay is an evolving industry standard developed by an open consortium of network providers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) serving the telecommunications market. The Parlay standard and its Web services version Parlay-X are designed to promote interoperability of applications across multiple networking platform environments. By incorporating Artix into its products and service offerings, Marconi provides a carrier-class solution that is designed to enable previous technology investments to support new Web Services based applications built in accordance with the Parlay standard.

"ESBs provide the software infrastructure required for building the new, service-oriented and event-driven applications that are vital to compete in today's tough markets," said Massimo Pezzini, Gartner. "The standards-based enterprise interoperability enabled by ESBs is crucial for telecommunications network operators and service providers, where multiple technology platforms and standards need to integrate seamlessly and exchange huge volumes of information. Thanks to ESB technology carriers can compete more successfully at the customer service level without worry of system incompatibility between new and established standards."

"Our significant experience in the telecommunications sector has given us a competitive advantage in our ability to deliver the next generation integration solutions required to meet the ongoing needs and complexities of this market," said Chris Horn, CEO, IONA Technologies. "Web services enable traditional businesses to open up their assets to new partners and in turn, generate new revenue. We look forward to working with Marconi to successfully exploit this opportunity."

About IONA

For more than a decade, IONA(R) Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA) has been a world leader in delivering high-performance integration solutions for enterprise IT environments. IONA pioneered standards-based integration with its CORBA-based Orbix(R) products. Artix(TM), IONA's extensible Enterprise Service Bus, enables existing enterprise systems to be integrated with an organization's common infrastructure components. Customers use Artix to incorporate current IT assets into valuable new business applications through enterprise-class, standards-based connectivity.

With its partners, IONA can deliver NOW on the promise of service-oriented integration, making it possible for customers to achieve system longevity and agility at a significantly lower cost.

IONA's customers include Global 2000 companies in telecommunications, financial services, aerospace and manufacturing, including AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, Deutsche Telekom, British Telecom, Hong Kong Telecom, NTT, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Winterthur Insurance, Zurich Insurance and Boeing.

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, High Performance Integration, Artix, Mobile Orchestrator and Making Software Work Together are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. CORBA is a trademark or registered trademark of the Object Management Group, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.