Ardent Software And NEON Systems Partner

Ardent Software and NEON Systems Partner to Provide Mainframe Data Access Options; Ardent Extends DataStage Suite with NEON Systems` Shadow Direct

Ardent Software, Inc., has announced that it will partner with NEON Systems, Inc., a provider of enterprise access and integration software products. This partnership complements Ardent's DataStage Suite by providing customers with direct access to DB2 for OS/390-MVS through NEON's Shadow Direct middleware. Shadow Direct provides direct access to mainframe-based data from client/server and n-tier environments such as UNIX and Windows NT.

"Despite the phenomenal acceptance of client/server solutions during the past decade, a very large number of Global 2000 companies maintain a significant amount of information in DB2 databases on their mainframes," said Mikael Wipperfeld, Vice President of Data Warehouse Marketing at Ardent Software. "These systems are the heart of many mission-critical applications, and end-users want the ability to rapidly incorporate this mainframe data into business intelligence and analytical applications. Ardent is committed to providing our customers with a wide range of data acquisition options, and NEON Systems' Shadow Direct does this by providing direct, high performance access to DB2."

"With the introduction of the DataStage Suite, Ardent is providing a comprehensive information management solution to meet enterprise business intelligence needs," said Jonathan Reed, Vice President, Marketing at NEON Systems, Inc. "NEON's Shadow Direct plays a key role in providing DataStage Suite applications with high performance, transparent access to DB2."

For more information, visit Ardent's website at http://www.ardentsoftware.com.

NEON's website can be visited at http://www.neonsys.com.