XQuery Technology Evangelist Jonathan Bruce Joins DataDirect Technolog

XQuery Technology Evangelist Jonathan Bruce Joins DataDirect Technologies

    Business Editors

    BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2005--

Jonathan Bruce to Drive DataDirect's Emerging XQuery Technologies and Broaden Reach in Global Marketplace
    DataDirect Technologies, the leading provider of components for connecting software to data, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Bruce to XQuery technology evangelist. A technical and specification architect with experience leading industry standards such as Java(TM), J2EE and SQL, Jonathan will be responsible for advancing the XQuery and XQJ standards and driving the adoption of DataDirect's new XQuery products.
    Jonathan joins DataDirect from Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he served as the JDBC specification lead and architect for the Java Platform. While at Sun Microsystems, Jonathan led four Java Specification Request efforts and successfully patented technology that now forms an integral part of the latest J2SE and J2EE platforms. Jonathan's background also includes business development, sales support as well as inbound and outbound licensing consulting for the Java platform and database-dependent components of Sun's Java Enterprise System.
    "Jonathan is a valuable addition to the DataDirect team," said Jerry King, vice president of XML products for DataDirect. "With proven experience in guiding standardization efforts and leading product development, quality assurance and reliance testing to deliver world-class products, he is certain to drive the adoption of DataDirect's XQuery technologies and support the company's ongoing success."
    Jonathan will lead the company's strategic beta program and official release of DataDirect XQuery(TM) planned for later this year, in addition to DataDirect's comprehensive offering of standards-based data connectivity components. DataDirect XQuery is an embeddable software product based on the XQuery and XQJ standards that enables Java developers at independent software vendors and in corporate IT departments to access relational and XML data sources with a single XQuery query.
    "DataDirect has a long history of being the first to market with the highest-performing data connectivity components, simplifying application development, and allowing market leading portability and performance in today's enterprise market," said Jonathan. "With an established leadership position in the industry and a recognized voice in XML standards development, DataDirect is ideally position for continued growth. I am excited to join the team and look forward to expanding DataDirect's presence in the XQuery market."
    Jonathan is co-author of the book JDBC API Tutorial and Reference, Third Edition, and frequently speaks at industry conferences, contributes numerous articles and frequently BLOGs on Java.net. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Dublin's Trinity College in Ireland.

    About DataDirect XQuery(TM)

    DataDirect XQuery(TM) is an easily embeddable XQuery implementation for XML applications that need to be able to process both XML and relational sources. It runs in any Java(TM) environment, on any operating system, using any major database, with or without application servers or other servers. DataDirect XQuery lets your developers work with standards, the W3C XQuery query language and XQuery API for Java (XQJ), instead of learning proprietary query language extensions and APIs. DataDirect XQuery enables XQuery everywhere - making it possible, practical and easy to use XQuery in any environment. DataDirect plans to make the DataDirect XQuery product available for beta testing in Spring 2005. For more information on DataDirect XQuery contact Nancy Vodicka at +1-919-461-4326 or visit http://www.datadirect.com.

    About DataDirect Technologies

    DataDirect Technologies is focused on standards-based data connectivity, enabling software developers to quickly develop and deploy business applications across all major databases and platforms. DataDirect Technologies offers the most comprehensive, proven line of data connectivity components available anywhere. Developers worldwide at more than 250 leading independent software vendors and thousands of corporate IT departments rely on DataDirect(R) products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources and using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET and cutting-edge XML query technologies. DataDirect Technologies is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), a US$300+ million global software industry leader. Headquartered in Bedford, Mass., DataDirect Technologies can be reached on the Web at http://www.datadirect.com or by phone at +1-800-876-3101.

    DataDirect and DataDirect XQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of DataDirect Technologies Corp. in the U.S. 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.

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KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING MANAGEMENT CHANGES SOURCE: DataDirect Technologies

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