Concurrently, Progress Software announced its recent acquisition of Xcalia, a leader in the development and adoption of the SDO standard and data integration technologies. Xcalia is now part of the DataDirect Technologies operating company. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Xcalia is a member of several international standards committees including JSR 317 (JPA2) and JSR 235 (SDO 3 for Java) within the Java Community Process (JCP). The company is also an active member of the OASIS and Open SOA consortiums contributing to the Service Data Objects (SDO 1, 2 and 3) and Data Access Service (DAS) specifications. Additionally, Xcalia spearheaded JDO and worked on EJB 3 standards.
"Along with IBM, BEA, Oracle and SAP, Xcalia has been an instrumental part of the development of SDO and DAS," said John Goodson, vice president and general manager of DataDirect Technologies. "Xcalia has one of the most mature implementations of these technologies on the market. We are excited by the opportunities created by these new technologies and are delighted to welcome the technical experts from Xcalia to our team."
"Through technology and through leadership in standards bodies, DataDirect Technologies and Xcalia have both demonstrated an unwavering commitment to innovation in data access," said Pierre Violo, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of Xcalia. "Joining forces with DataDirect Technologies brings together the industry's top minds, top technologies and top products in standards-based data access."
Pierre Violo will remain with the company to assist John Goodson during the integration phase. Xcalia co-founder and chief technology officer, Eric Samson joins DataDirect Technologies, as chief technology officer of data services. Considered one of the world's foremost experts on data access, Samson will provide technical leadership for the company's SOA data access efforts.
SDO is a unique data access standard in that it offers applications and services participating in a SOA to access any kind of data, including relational, XML, or application-specific data objects, from various kinds of data sources in a consistent, standards-based way via synchronous or asynchronous service calls. This is a key requirement to reap the agility and reusability benefits of SOA. Too often, data access is an overlooked aspect of building a SOA until the number of applications and services accessing the data become too difficult to manage using tightly coupled connections. SDO is designed to address these problems.
"Leveraging a more holistic data integration strategy and enabling infrastructure can help enterprises better realize value from their application and SOA implementations," states Sandra Rogers, program director, SOA, Web Services and Integration at IDC. "The ability to address consistent and optimized access and transaction support to information-based services can simplify application and process development and maintenance efforts; increase broader-based and compliant use of information; promote greater levels of reuse; and introduce capabilities to infuse information further into dynamic and real-time processes."
As a leading independent provider of standards-based data access technologies, including ODBC and JDBC drivers, ADO.NET data providers and service-based mainframe connectivity, DataDirect Technologies' support for data access via SDO standards is a logical extension of the company's product offerings and exciting news for architects and developers. The company plans to announce new products later in the year that combine Xcalia® technologies with DataDirect® industry leading products.
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 unit of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS). For more information, visit www.datadirect.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 contains certain safe harbor provisions regarding forward-looking statements. Information provided by Progress Software Corporation and its affiliated companies ("PSC") or statements made by PSC directors, officers or employees from time to time, may contain "forward-looking" statements and information, which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may differ materially. Statements indicating that we "expect," "estimate," "believe," "are planning" or "plan to" are forward-looking, as are other statements concerning future financial results, product offerings or other events that have not yet occurred. There are various factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors are more fully described in Item 1A of PSC's Form 10-K under the heading "Risk Factors." Although we have sought to identify the most significant risks to our business, we cannot predict whether, or to what extent, any such risks may be realized. We also cannot assure you that we have identified all possible issues which we might face. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that we make.
DataDirect and Xcalia are registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates 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.