Visigenic Announces Release of New Tools to Visually Manage Distributed Object Environments.

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 1998--

VisiBroker Manager Available to Enhance Developers' and

Administrators' Productivity

Visigenic Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSGN), the leading supplier of object request broker (ORB) technology to the computer industry, today announced the commercial release of VisiBroker Manager, an integrated set of tools for managing VisiBroker-based environments.

With this release, Visigenic further expands its VisiBroker ORB product line with management tools that are designed to complement VisiBroker for Java 3.0 and VisiBroker for C++ 3.0.

Jens Christensen, chief technology officer at Visigenic stated, "VisiBroker tools provide a major step in meeting the vision laid out as part of our Distributed Application Platform strategy. First we delivered VisiBroker 3.0 as the core of the application platform, and now we are delivering the first set of GUI object management tools for more easily enabling customers to be productive in building and deploying their applications."

Enterprise applications that consist of many objects and servers pose significant administrative problems for developers. For an implementation to be successful, the developer needs access to precise information and the ability to act on that information. The traditional approach for accessing this information has been through a command line interface. VisiBroker Manager now provides visual access to the information that developers need to manage CORBA/IIOP applications. VisiBroker Manager also lets developers use the graphical interface to perform administrative tasks. For example, by simply dragging an object reference from the Location Service Browser window, users can create a new name binding in the Naming Service Manager window.

Anish Dhanda, principal with NetNumina Solutions, Inc. stated, "We fully believe in VisiBroker 3.0 as means for delivering CORBA-based distributed object applications. However, there has always been a need for a more visual view of the ORB environment and VisiBroker Manager gives us what is needed to manage the object environment. The information provided by these tools has definitely increased our developer productivity in building and deploying distributed applications."

VisiBroker Manager consists of four integrated components that allow developers to manage the VisiBroker environment. VisiBroker Manager offers an interactive, graphical interface from a central location that allows navigation of repositories and drag-and-drop maintenance of objects. IT personnel developing, managing, and/or deploying CORBA-based applications will be more productive as a result of being able to more easily manage their distributed object environment with the use of this single interface. The VisiBroker Manager components include: -0-

     --   Naming Service Manager which works with VisiBroker Naming
          Service to allow users to visually manage all namespaces
          containing logical object names defined for the network. It
          lets users easily navigate the namespaces, confirm object
          name bindings point to valid active objects, and manage the
          information within the namespace.

     --   Location Service Browser which displays all objects
          registered with Smart Agent, VisiBroker's unique technology
          for allowing dynamic discovery of available objects. It
          allows users to navigate the list of accessible interfaces
          and filter the list by instances or by specific machines.
          The Location Service Browser makes it easy to find and
          manipulate references to active objects, simplifying
          development.

     --   Interface Repository Browser which provides a graphical view
          of all objects and data structures stored in the interface
          repository. Users can hierarchically view the contents of
          IDL structures for CORBA objects including modules,
          interfaces, methods, parameters and datatypes; and use
          hyperlinks to navigate between related entries.

     --   Implementation Repository Manager which displays server
          activation policies for registered object implementations
          for all Object Activation Daemons (OADs), which is used to
          automatically launch instances of a server when a request is
          received. Users may edit or register new implementations
          directly from the Implementation Repository Manager.

-0- Platforms, Availability, and Pricing

VisiBroker Manager is written in Java, offering complete portability for environments supporting JDK 1.1. VisiBroker Manager supports VisiBroker for Java 3.0 and VisiBroker for C++ 3.0, as well as VisiBroker 3.0-supported platforms (with JDK 1.1). VisiBroker Manager is available now starting at $695 for a single user.

About Visigenic Software, Inc.

Visigenic is playing a key role in creating the foundation on which new, mission-critical applications are being developed -- the open, distributed, object-based architecture for the new global enterprise. Building on its expertise in standards-based distributed object and data access technologies, Visigenic has become a leading supplier of ORB technology to the computer industry. Companies embedding Visigenic's VisiBroker technology into their products and/or product architectures include Oracle, Hitachi, Netscape, Novell, Sybase, Borland, Gemstone, Silicon Graphics, Cincom and Business Objects. Recently, VisiBroker won DBMS Magazine's 1997 Readers' Choice Award for best Object Request Broker. Additionally, Visigenic was identified by IDC, an independent market research firm, as the fastest growing object middleware vendor in their "Middleware: 1997 Worldwide Markets and Trends" report.

On November 18th, 1997, Visigenic and Borland International, Inc. announced that the two companies had signed a definitive agreement for Visigenic to be acquired by Borland. The board of directors of both companies have approved the acquisition, which is subject to approval by the stockholders of both companies, as well as to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Additional information about Visigenic may be obtained via the Web at http://www.visigenic.com. -0-

Note to Editors: Visigenic is a registered trademark and VisiChannel for JDBC and VisiBroker are trademarks of Visigenic Software, Inc. Java and JDBC are registered trademarks of Sun MicroSystems. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Visigenic Software

Steve Yellenberg, 650/655-3978

[e-mail]

or

The Horn Group

Rob Lenkowicz, 650/579-6413

[e-mail]