XQuery Adoption Rate Soaring Among XML Developers

Software professionals embrace XQuery, citing simplified XML data access and transformation – Comprehensive XQuery Industry Study results available online for free.

Bedford, MA — March 29, 2005 — DataDirect Technologies (http://www.datadirect.com), the industry leading provider of XML and XQuery development tools and XQuery processing components for data integration, today announced that 52% of XML developers have already started working with XQuery in the last 12 months and another 33% have plans to start using XQuery in 2005. This is just one of many key findings of a newly published, comprehensive XQuery Industry Study conducted by DataDirect Technologies of 550 software professionals representing a dynamic range of small, medium and large companies across dozens of industries from 48 countries.

Anecdotally, many indicators might lead one to conclude that XQuery is poised to revolutionize the way enterprise software applications are built - consider the unprecedented level of co-operation among competing software vendors in the XQuery standardization effort, the burgeoning growth in XQuery-enabled software products, widespread adoption of XML technologies, and most importantly, the industry's clear need for a standard technology that addresses querying and manipulating XML data. Yet no comprehensive XQuery industry study has been published to challenge the statistical validity of such claims. Until now. DataDirect's groundbreaking 2005 XQuery Industry Study is available for free download at: www.datadirect.com/xquerystudy/

"The survey data confirmed what we've known all along - that there's a tremendous interest for an alternative to the tedious, low-level methods presently employed for querying, manipulating and transforming XML data. Our customers often ask us: "How can I get relational and legacy data into XML? And once I have all this XML data, how do I manipulate and integrate it?" For us, XQuery has always been the answer, and we're seeing developers endorse XQuery in record numbers through their actions - making the decision to develop XQuery enabled solutions today. This is especially remarkable considering that the W3C XQuery Recommendation is still several months from final completion," said Jerry King, Vice President of XML Products at DataDirect Technologies.

Mr. King continued, "Building real-world XQuery solutions requires purpose-built tools and components, and the DataDirect XML products group leads the industry by providing innovative products that meet the demands of integration architects and application developers. Stylus Studio® includes an intuitive XQuery developer environment that eases the learning curve, simplifies the development process, and enhances productivity. DataDirect XQuery™, scheduled for beta release in May, 2005, provides a robust engine to power XQuery applications, delivering the performance needed by advanced data integration applications. Together, DataDirect XML products are revolutionizing the way enterprise applications are built."

The Most Comprehensive XQuery Industry Study Ever

DataDirect's 2005 XQuery Industry Study provides an in-depth examination that reveals who is using XQuery, what companies and industries are benefiting from XQuery technologies today, and most importantly, why so many software professionals have chosen to use XQuery to query and process distributed data sources. Who's behind XQuery? The XQuery working group includes representatives from leading enterprise software vendors including DataDirect, BEA, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. These and other members of the W3C working group recently published an XQuery Working Draft (February 2005), and they are expected to publish a final working draft sometime later this year, with full status as a Recommendation to follow in 2006.

About DataDirect XQuery™

DataDirect XQuery™ is the first embeddable component for XQuery that implements the XQuery for Java™ API (XQJ). It supports all major relational databases on any Java platform. DataDirect XQuery allows you to query XML, relational databases or a combination of the two, integrating the results for XML-based data exchange, XML-driven Web sites, and other applications that require or leverage the power of XML. DataDirect XQuery installs easily; it does not require its own server infrastructure and is scalable from desktop to enterprise applications. DataDirect XQuery is designed for software developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) who need to manage heterogeneous data sources in XML applications. DataDirect XQuery is scheduled for commercial release in September, 2005. For more information, visit www.datadirect.com/products/xquery.

About Stylus Studio

Stylus Studio®, a product from DataDirect Technologies, an operating company of Progress Software Corporation, is the industry's most innovative XML IDE providing advanced support for XML and its related technologies: XSL, XSLT, XML Schema, DTD, SOAP, WSDL, SQL/XML, XML mapping and XQuery. Used by leading software developers world-wide, Stylus Studio simplifies XML programming and enhances developer productivity through innovation. For more information, visit: www.stylusstudio.com.

About DataDirect Technologies

DataDirect Technologies is the software industry's only comprehensive provider of software for connecting the world's most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on DataDirect® products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC™ and ADO.NET, XQuery and SOAP. More than 300 leading independent software vendors and thousands of enterprises rely on DataDirect Technologies to simplify and streamline data connectivity for distributed systems and to reduce the complexity of mainframe integration. DataDirect Technologies is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS). For more information, visit www.datadirect.com.

DataDirect and DataDirect XQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataDirect Technologies Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. Stylus Studio is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor Statement
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including but not limited to the following: the receipt and shipment of new orders, the timely release of enhancements to the company's products, the growth rates of certain market segments, the positioning of the company's products in those market segments, variations in the demand for customer service and technical support, pricing pressures and the competitive environment in the software industry, business and consumer use of the Internet, and the company's ability to penetrate international markets and manage its international operations. The company undertakes no obligation to update information contained in this release. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with the company's business, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Press Contact: