Progress Software Extends Connectivity for Award-Winning SonicMQ Internet Messaging Server.

Business/Technology Editors

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2000

First Ever Link Between Multiple JMS Implementations;

Transparent Access to Legacy Messaging Systems

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS), a leading supplier of application development, deployment and management products and services, today announced it has extended the connectivity of its award-winning Internet messaging server, Progress(R) SonicMQ(TM), with a family of bridges to other Java Message Service (JMS) and legacy messaging systems such as IBM's MQSeries(R), as well as other Internet B2B services.

Available now in beta release at www.sonicmq.com, the SonicMQ bridges provide transparent connection to popular Internet protocols and legacy messaging systems. In addition, via a new SonicMQ Bridge Programming Framework, developers can extend SonicMQ's reach to additional applications and systems.

"SonicMQ offers enhanced performance over the Internet and stands out as a uniquely 'Internet-Friendly' message oriented middleware by leveraging its roots in the increasingly popular JMS specification," said Sally Cusack, research manager of Middleware and Businessware at IDC. "SonicMQ now also offers a bridge to IBM's MQSeries, enabling IT shops looking to integrate both their EAI and Internet initiatives with a best-of-both-worlds approach."

"Successfully implementing Internet B2B not only requires high performance, and massively scalable messaging, but also integration with different systems and protocols," said Paul MacKay, vice president, sales and marketing, Internet products at Progress Software. "The technology we're announcing today gives developers the ability to use the standards-based API in SonicMQ in order to access these other systems quickly and transparently. They will help ensure SonicMQ -- the leading JMS implementation -- has the greatest flexibility of any standards-based messaging solution."

The new components comprise:

-- Progress SonicMQ Bridge for IBM MQSeries for access between IBM MQSeries and SonicMQ;

-- Progress SonicMQ Bridge for JMS for access to other JMS implementations;

-- SonicMQ Mail Connector that extends and integrates JMS messaging with ubiquitous e-mail protocols;

-- SonicMQ Bridge Programming Framework that provides an API and services for developers to create custom adapters to enterprise applications and legacy systems.

Easy to Use; Extensive Interoperability

The family of bridges provides transparent, high-volume bidirectional access with no code changes to applications, and little or no maintenance after initial configuration. Developers can use one or multiple bridges as necessary to extend the standards-based messaging models of SonicMQ to additional messaging systems and Internet services.

Many implementers find it necessary to integrate their new B2B applications with legacy systems based on IBM MQSeries. The SonicMQ Bridge for MQSeries provides an easy-to-implement solution to this potentially thorny problem. Once configured, the bridge will seamlessly route message traffic between a JMS messaging domain and an MQSeries domain.

The SonicMQ Bridge for JMS solves the problem of interoperability among different JMS implementations. Although JMS is the first and only standard for messaging-oriented middleware, it does not define how various implementations should "talk" to each other. As a result, vendors have had to rely on their own proprietary methods for communicating over Internet protocols, such as TCP/IP and HTTP, thereby making different JMS implementations incompatible with each other over the wire.

In a similar fashion, the SonicMQ Mail Connector makes it easy to build a B2B solution on top of the reliable messaging infrastructure of SonicMQ. The Mail Connector also includes parties that only transact business via e-mail transports, or parties that wish to use e-mail as a fallback transport, should their primary network transport happen to fail. For example, developers can use the SonicMQ Mail Connector to broadcast bid requests to suppliers that can only receive e-mail.

SonicMQ is based on the Java Message Service (JMS) specification, part of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standard from Sun, which provides a common set of messaging concepts and programming strategies enabling Java(R) developers to add enterprise messaging capabilities to their applications. SonicMQ extends JMS by supporting key Internet standards such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), HTTP tunneling and SSL.

Since its introduction in December 1999, SonicMQ has been chosen by many leading e-commerce infrastructure companies and has won numerous awards, including Best Java Middleware from attendees at the SIGS Conference for Java Development, a World Class Award from Java Developer's Journal and the Readers Choice Award for best Java messaging tool from Java Pro.

Availability

Beta versions of the bridges and connector, documentation, sample code and the SonicMQ Programming Framework can be downloaded at www.sonicmq.com.

There is no charge for the beta, which is unsupported. Users can submit feedback, and concerns to an e-mail address supplied with the beta. The price and ship date have not yet been announced.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a global supplier of software products and services for developing, deploying and managing business applications moving to the Internet. We offer superior messaging servers, application servers, databases, and application development and management products.

Our partners include more than 2,000 application service providers (ASPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) who supply annually over $5 billion in Progress(R)-based applications and related services. Our products are used by over 10,000 organizations across 100 countries worldwide, including 60% of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, visit www.progress.com or call [phone].

Progress is a registered trademark and SonicMQ is a trademark of Progress Software Corporation. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. MQSeries is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks and/or servicemarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.