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Progress Software Underpins CERN's Search for "God Particle"

Dec 07, 2009
Progress Software Underpins CERN's Search for "God Particle"BEDFORD, Mass., Dec 07, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading independent enterprise software provider that enables companies to be operationally responsive, today announced that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN*) is using Progress® FUSE™, to run its operational grid activities of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) re-launch which happened this month.

Progress Software's FUSE solution will underpin all grid monitoring systems used in CERN's quest to find the Higgs Boson particle - known as 'The God Particle'. This discovery could revolutionize the way we look at the universe.

"Tasked with bringing together all these operational systems, CERN needed an enterprise-wide messaging framework that would allow for flexibility and integrate systems together," said James Casey, Technical Architect at CERN.

"Progress Software's open source solution offers us the ability to build on what we already have and support our enterprise operations. Much of the development has been funded within the European Union project; 'Enabling Grids for E-sciencE' (EGEE), and released as open source software under the Apache licence."

"Since the Progress open source solutions are also under the Apache licence it makes for a good fit - we can contribute back to it, and all our sites can freely deploy it," he explained.

"We needed to find a partner that could help us bring agility and reliability to our IT infrastructure," he added. "We have a pipeline of projects that we need to deliver over the coming years, so this first step lays the foundation for change."

"Progress Software's support and training has ensured a smooth roll out. The bespoke training has enabled all parties to understand the implementation - it has been instrumental in ensuring that everything slotted into place perfectly."

"Organizations like CERN need dependable software: they have a no-failure policy," said Dr. Giles Nelson, Senior Director of Strategy, Progress Software. "CERN's complex systems need to run like clockwork - whether they are sending over accountancy software or whether they could change the universe. For this, CERN can rely on Progress Software."

In a separate project, the Progress SonicMQ has also been chosen by CERN to form the communications backbone of its Technical Infrastructure Monitoring (TIM) system, designed to alert researchers in the event of an emergency.

For more information on Progress Software's open source support offering on Apache ActiveMQ please go to: www.fusesource.com

Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is an independent enterprise software company that enables businesses to be operationally responsive to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur - to capitalize on new opportunities, drive greater efficiencies and reduce risk. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class enterprise software spanning event-driven visibility and real-time response, open integration, data access and integration, and application development and deployment - all supporting on-premises and SaaS/Cloud deployments. Progress maximizes the benefits of operational responsiveness while minimizing IT complexity and total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000.

FUSE and Progress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its affiliates or subsidiaries 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 contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

About CERN

CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) was founded in Geneva on 29 September 1954 and currently has 20 member states. With around 2500 employees, CERN is the world's largest research center for particle physics. In addition, over 8000 scientists from around the world use CERN's facilities to find answers to fundamental questions about our universe. CERN is currently building the world's largest particle accelerator, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), with a circumference of 27 km. The LHC will become operational in 2007. More information is available at www.cern.ch.

About EGEE

The Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) project is co-funded by the European Commission. The project aims to provide researchers, in both academia and industry, with access to major computing resources, independent of their geographic locations.

EGEE's main aims are:

1. To build a secure, reliable and robust grid infrastructure

2. To supply a computing service for many scientific disciplines

3. To attract, engage and support a wide range of users from science and industry, and provide them with extensive technical and training support.

Press contact: Neasan O'Neil, EGEE Press and Events Manager, +44 (0)79 6281 8712, n.oneill@qmul.ac.uk.



Learn more at http://www.eu-egee.org

* The acronym CERN originally stood, in French, for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), which was a provisional council for setting up the laboratory, established by 11 European governments in 1952. The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the provisional council was dissolved, even though the name changed to the current Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 1954.

SOURCE: Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software
Lisa Coulouris, 781-280-4995
lcoulour@progress.com
or
LEWIS PR
Dan Gaffney, 617-226-8840
progresssoftware@lewispr.com