Borland Kylix 2 delivers first Web Services solution for Linux

Borland Software Corporation a leading provider of e-business platform solutions, has announced Borland Kylix 2 for the rapid development of e-business applications for Linux.

The latest version of Borland`s award-winning, rapid application development (RAD) environment for the Linux operating system, Kylix 2 enables companies to rapidly build and deploy applications that simplify e-business integration with Web Services across diverse platforms between customers, suppliers, business partners and employees worldwide.

According to a recent survey by Evans Data, 70% of Linux developers believe Web Services now represent the "future of Internet applications". Kylix 2 leverages Web Services and XML technologies to expand the e-business capabilities of Linux and Apache. By combining Kylix 2 with Borland Delphi 6, the first Web Services development environment for the Windows platform, companies can develop cross-platform enterprise-class applications that integrate with Web Services industry standards, SOAP, XML and WSDL.

"As a member of the largest commercial real estate company in the world, working across multiple infrastructures and disparate systems, Kylix 2 with its support for Web Services is a welcome addition to us and the Linux community as a whole," said Jonathan Green, chief information officer, Colliers International Partnership. "Borland packages the cost savings of Linux with the ability to create and use Web Services to deliver a real solution for our e-business application giving us a huge differentiator over our competitors."

As the provider of a Linux-based solution to Colliers International Partnership, Alain "Lino" Tadros, president and CTO of Kazoo Software Inc, said: "Kylix 2 enables us to provide our customers with a greater range of functionality. The combination of Delphi 6 and Kylix 2 allows us to reduce time to market for our application development, passing on additional savings to our customers."

"With Kylix 2, Borland offers a compelling solution for businesses looking to extend their applications to the Internet," said Bill Claybrook, research director, Linux and Open Source Software, Aberdeen Group. "Borland`s combination of Kylix 2 with Delphi 6 delivers true cross platform development, which is especially important as Linux continues to grow as a mainstream operating system."

Kylix 2 features BizSnap, WebSnap and DataSnap to form a fully integrated set of visual tools with advanced compiler technology and re-usable software components. With these components, Kylix 2 users can easily exchange and manipulate XML documents, integrate applications across the Internet, and additional functionality from Web Service platforms including .Net and BizTalk from Microsoft, and ONE from Sun Microsystems. Kylix 2 delivers true platform and language interoperability and flexibility by supporting industry standard Web Service protocols such as SOAP, XML and WSDL.

Borland Kylix 2 new product features include:

• .         BizSnap Web Services RAD development platform simplifies next generation e-business integration by easily creating XML/SOAP Web Services and connections.

• .         WebSnap transforms Apache Web servers into powerful enterprise-class database driven Web application servers.

• .         DataSnap allows customers to build high-performance, Web Service-enabled database middleware that scales and interoperates with any e-business solution, such as Oracle, Informix, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL/Red Hat database and Borland InterBase, through industry standard Web Services and XML, DCOM or CORBA.

• .         CORBA support for building high-performance, rich GUI clients for Borland VisiBroker.

• .         Cross-platform application development by combining Kylix 2 with Delphi 6 to develop one code base for both Linux and Windows.

• .         Publish Borland AppServer Enterprise Java Beans functionality as Web Services with BizSnap by leveraging new Simple IDL (SIDL). "Web Services delivers on the promise of the Internet to solve integration problems and reduce the costs of doing business," said Simon Thornhill, vice president and general manager for RAD solutions at Borland. "Borland is the only company delivering Web Services solutions today for both Windows and Linux environments."

As part of Borland`s ongoing commitment to offer best in class technology solutions, Borland also announced the addition of a new interactive training course to its growing e-Learning Series - RADical Web Services for e-Business.

This new computer-based training product is designed for users of Borland Kylix and Delphi to quickly learn how to develop and implement Web Services. The e-Learning Series training courses are easy-to-follow, self-paced tutorials with hands-on exercises that teach how to create, manage and deploy distributed applications.

Borland Kylix 2 is available in three editions: Kylix 2 Enterprise, Kylix 2 Professional and Kylix 2 Open. Special upgrade pricing is available for Borland Kylix customers, as well as special pricing for Borland Delphi 6 users. A 60-day free trial download of Kylix 2 Enterprise is also available at http://www.borland.com/downloads/. Kylix 2 Open Edition for open source software (general public licence GPL) developers will be made available shortly.

Web Services are business processes that can be discovered and run over the Internet using standard technologies. By using Web Services, companies can easily connect applications using standard XML formats over standard Internet protocols to virtually any client, including desktop applications, Web browsers, mobile devices and PDAs. Similarly, Web Services easily interconnect applications from completely different hardware platforms, such as mainframes, application servers and Web servers; Web Services also support connections among disparate operating systems such as Windows, Java, Linux and Unix. Web Services enable developers to build e-business applications that can connect with any customer, supplier and business partner anywhere in the world - regardless of the chosen platform or programming language.

For further information, please contact Borland Southern Africa on tel (011) 622 1635, or fax (011) 622 1534, or visit the local or international Web-sites www.borland.co.za or www.borland.com