Jade version 6 released

NEWS RELEASE

Jade version 6 released

Christchurch 2 July 2003: Jade Software Corporation today announced the availability of JADE Version 6 and the release of some key new product features.

"Back in 1993 we assembled a team of skilled software engineers from all over the world," says Mike White, Jade's director of technology. "Their brief was to build a product that would take us into the next century.

The outcome was JADE. 10 years on we are now releasing JADE 6 and this is a significant release both in terms of changes to our licensing scheme, and the functionality of this release.

JADE 6 sees the release of several new features that, Mike White says, further enhance their product offering. The major new product areas covered by this release are server side Linux, synchronised database services, HTML deployment enhancements, and the soon to be released web services pack.

With the growing popularity of the Linux platform, the server-side components of JADE 6 are now available on Linux. Developers can take advantage of the productivity benefits JADE brings to enterprise system development and deploy the back-end components on a Linux platform. JADE systems are totally portable across Linux Red Hat 9.0 and SuSE 7, Windows from Microsoft, and IBM's UNIX operating system AIX. "JADE shields the developers from the complexities and differences in the underlying platforms," said Mike. "Although the JADE clients are still Windows based in JADE 6, the JADE Development Centre has completed the research and currently has a portable Java-based client under development and scheduled for release later this year. This will enable JADE developers to implement portable interfaces on all platforms and in particular, will allow them to develop and deploy an end-to-end Linux solution."

The new JADE Synchronized Database Service, provides three key enterprise capabilities straight out-of-the-box; hot standby, an active secondary database and multiple active secondaries with different roles. These secondary databases can be used as hot standby environments for disaster recovery and at the same time help reduce backup requirements. The active secondaries allow read-only processes to run against them. According to Mike, this is a powerful feature that allows you to offload querying and reporting tasks from the primary online database hence improving the performance and scalability of the whole system.

The JADE 6 release now provides two methods of HTML deployment: HTML Forms and HTML Documents. With HTML Forms, developers build their GUI entirely in JADE, using the JADE Painter - there's no need for them to delve into HTML. With HTML Documents, externally created pages are imported into the JADE environment and JADE automatically generates classes that model their structure.

Web services is a set of protocols and programming standards for message transmission and comprise four main technologies: XML, SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. "Whilst JADE systems currently have web services co-existence capability, adhering to the JADE product philosophy, this new functionality will be incorporated in a highly integrated manner, so that it is made available using the consistent approach expected by JADE developers," added Mike.

With the release of JADE 6, the development platform has been made freely available to developers via download from their website, www.jadeworld.com. Previous development licensing was priced at $6400 per developer. This signals a major shift in the company's go to market strategy, and is a welcome move for the thousands of JADE students graduating each semester from the 40 odd universities and vocational colleges around the world teaching JADE programming.

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NEWS RELEASE

Jade announces release of free development platform

Christchurch 2 July 2003: Jade Software Corporation today announced it is making its development software technology free via download from its website. The move is part of a new software licensing scheme effective from the launch of JADE version 6 and Sir Gil Simpson, founder and president of Jade Software Corporation, says this heralds a major change in their go to market strategy.

"I've decided it's time to make our technology more widely available to the development community and one of the best ways to do that is take away any price barrier to experimentation and education," said Sir Gil.

"We introduced JADE to the market in the late 90s. It was a brand new technology that challenged traditional development ideas and conventions. We were met with scepticism and in some instances blunt resistance. Since that time we have worked with a group of dedicated JADE customers, software companies and channel partners in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom to prove that the JADE approach can deliver real benefits across the whole application development and runtime lifecycle.

"In 2003 the business environment calls for vastly different types of information systems than those envisaged in the 1970s, which is when some of today's more mainstream development tools and technologies were created. Even the most talented developers struggle with the complexity resulting from the multi-dimensional, real-time, client-centric, integrated, web-enabled, distributed demands of today's computing.

"Now we have excellent references across the globe that clearly demonstrate how powerful a fresh approach to the development and operation of information systems can be. JADE systems are being built faster, for less and their developers can conceptualise and deliver incredibly complex systems. The resulting solutions are among the world's best information systems - scalable, robust and interoperable with all manner of external systems and technologies," added Gil.

The most recent success was a UK banking industry award for the JADE branch automation system written in record time. The client has stated that the new system took less time to develop than the previous supplier's attempt was delayed by.

JADE development licences were previously $6400 NZD per developer as a one off fee, with 15% technical support per annum, and a 10% per annum upgrade insurance. From JADE 6, a development licence allowing up to 10 concurrent developers in the environment will be available free for download on registration at the Jade website, www.jade6.com . Production systems must be licensed separately for runtime. Technical support is now available through a range of support options, designed to give developers a choice in the level of technical service they require from the Jade Technical Support Centre based in Christchurch. An upgrade assurance plan is also offered. The free development platform comes with a test production platform. A JADE Enterprise Edition with extensible frameworks and a larger test platform is also available.

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NEWS RELEASE

Jade Delivers on Stage One of End-to-End Linux Strategy

Christchurch 2 July 2003: Jade Software Corporation today announced the availability of their server side Linux operating platform capability, a move said to be stage one of a full blown Linux strategy, designed to penetrate northern hemisphere development markets.

JADE 6 will be available for the Linux Red Hat 9.0 Distribution operating system that according to IDC has 13.7% of the computer server market and is expected to grow to over 25% within three years.

"There's a great deal of interest in Linux as organisations increasingly want a choice of operating platforms," said Mike White, Jade's director of technology. "They cite the reduced cost and reliability of the Linux platform under enterprise conditions as a key driver for their adoption, and for some it borders on an almost religious preference.

"However, the fact is that enterprise scale Linux development technologies for transaction processing, are few and far between. So with JADE 6, we are filling a gap in the market and giving these developers a proven scalable software technology that will operate under either Linux or Windows."

JADE systems can be deployed in two-tier and three-tier or n-tier architectures. From JADE 6, organisations have the ability to run the JADE database servers and JADE application servers on Linux. The presentation connectivity currently remains via browsers or Windows clients but will be extended to Linux in the future

"We are totally committed to providing our user community with a full end-to-end Linux development and runtime platform," said Mike. "Our portable Java-based thin client is under final stages of development and, when released in a later dot release to version 6, will complement the existing HTML thin clients, the JADE Smart Thin Client and standard client options."

JADE's native thin client capability, called the JADE Smart Thin Client, allows the fullest set of presentation functionality to be deployed over low-speed networks such as the Internet. This technology was key to the development of JADE's award winning branch automation system for the United Kingdom's banking industry. Technicians have the advantage of maintaining the application in a central, secure location, while providing remote staff or branches with LAN-like access to the application across the Internet or WAN.

According to Mike, Jade's enterprise solutions in the health, higher education and ports and shipping industries will also be ported to Linux to extend these solutions to existing clients and prospects. Similarly, third party channel partners and ISVs marketing JADE-platformed solutions will begin to move their applications to the Linux operating system as their individual client bases and business strategies dictate.

Jade believes the upwards compatibility of JADE version releases is a major benefit to the many software vendors who have developed solutions in JADE for resale into a variety of market verticals.

Mike White continues, "If the developer's solution or package was developed in JADE 5, with the exception of some fine-tuning for performance, the migration to JADE 6 to obtain the accompanying Linux capability is a relatively painless procedure involving the extraction of system schemas and data and reloading them into the new JADE 6 production platform. JADE provides the platform utilities to do this. So, a windows-based JADE accounting package for example, can be upgraded to JADE 6 and it's now a Linux-based JADE accounting package too. That's money in the bank for the marketers of these solutions."

JADE 6 is available for free download from www.jade6.com

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About JADE

JADE is an advanced software platform that has an integrated development environment, a language, an object manager and an object database. JADE 6 is a fully open technology designed to enable technicians to build, run and change transaction-based information systems for Windows and Linux. JADE 6 is available for free download from www.jade6.com

About Jade Software Corporation

Established in 1978, Jade is an enterprise software company. It produces a software technology platform called JADE, provides custom development services and enterprise software solutions for healthcare, higher education, ports and shipping, supply chain, HR and payroll, finance, banking and insurance sectors. A network of distributors and channel partners sells the company's products and services to companies throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. A privately owned New Zealand company, Jade has offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin in New Zealand, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Atlanta, Georgia, United States and York, United Kingdom. The company's founder and President is Sir Gil Simpson. For more information visit www.jadeworld.com

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